The Hunted
by professorrosi
Summary: It's been three years since the Volturi tried to destroy the Cullens and the Quileutes. Everything has gotten back to normal.Until two people, two strangers, move into the tiny town of ese people who leave a trail of destruction in their wake and cause pain wherever they are. They need to be taken care.But to do so would mean both death and heartbreak.
1. Chapter 1

October 1, 2009

_Five. Or, ten. Five couples pass through my mind. Or should I say five souls, destined for one another? Together they make ten faces. The faces of my brothers, all along the faces of future sisters. Then more and more. Ten faces to sixteen. Sixteen turn into twenty. Twenty-four. Twenty-eight. Thirty. _

_Then they all slide away morphing and fading into one. One face. My face. I'm standing in a graveyard surround by my family. The only differences that they're all six feet away from me. Or perhaps six feet under? Nevertheless, I am there. Young yet, ancient. Beautiful (to some degree). But, alone. Sad. Sorry. Miserable. _

_Because everyone one else found it. Because everyone else found their reason to live. Their reason to truly live and give up the title of shape-shifter, werewolf, or spirit warrior. They found her. Him. But not me. Never. Impossible. _

I wake with a gasp and sit up as straight as a board. I am sweating and breathing heavy. That was a new one. A new type of dream. A nightmare. How weird? I know that I haven't had a nightmare - _truly -_had a nightmare since I was eight. These things though. Whoa. I have had them before. Dreams about the pack and about imprinting (never me though, always about the others but I was happy for them). Though they were never that . . . _depressing. _

I do not feel that way. At least I don't think so. _No! You don't, _I think to myself. I need to get up. To clear my mind. I roll out of bed trying to be quiet. I don't succeed. I take two steps and am at my dresser on the other side of the tiny room. I open up the drawers and pull out a pair of faded jeans and a hoodie that I put on over my wife beater and boxers. I quickly run down the stairs and am out the door, still running.

That's what I need; a good run where I'm connected to no ones mind but my own. It's not that I mind it. The whole wolf telepathy we have when we phase but the last thing I want is for Jacob to think I resent him in any way. I doubt he'd take it that way but, I'd rather not take the chance of getting mauled.

Personally, I'd like to know when I turned into a psychic. At least that's the only way I see it, me having prophetic dreams about the packs. Well, not completely prophetic. Sam and Emily are already married, Paul (much to Jacobs disapproval) is engaged to Rachel, Jared and Kim are dating just like Embry and Ella and Bradley and Amelia. Jake is Nessie's best friend, and Quil's existence still revolves around being a perfect brother to five-year old Clair.

Our seven youngest though are still single but I think they enjoy it. Especially the oldest of the youngest. _'Studs like us can't just be tied down!' _I chuckle at the thought. I agree with them. Sort of. I have dated some girls. No one from the Res though. It would be excessively awkward if I did then imprint on someone else.

I cringe and remember the plot line from so many years ago. The most painful love/hate triangle known to man. The worst part in a way was that it was practically centered on my sister Leah. Every now and then, she'll still get in a mood, but she has done better. She started community college the fall after the _almost_ Vamp Club Apocalypse. She is getting her degree in art. I was - still am - surprised. She tried meditating and yoga for her anger and of course neither or those worked so she played around with everything and eventually got into sketching, painting, ceramics even a bit of basket weaving. Now she even has a shop open in La Push. She's actually happy. Of course, there's still the issue of imprinting. She's become very good at hiding her emotions but, you can still see the slight sting of pain when Sam kisses Emily or the longing on her face when she sees a happy couple on the street.

I'm brought out of my thoughts when I realize how far I've run. All the way to the old boundary lines. I look to my right and see the new diner half on and half off the Quileute lands. I decide to go inside. I walk across the parking lot where a three cars sit parked off to the side. _The employees, _I think.

I walk in and smell new paint, saw dust, plastic leather, all slightly masked over by a thick veil of a rain forest scented air freshener. Quickly a girl walks out from the back room in a pair of black jeans, a green shirt and an apron with a notepad stuck in it. She's short, maybe 5"2 with straight black hair pulled back into a messy bun. Her face is round shaped with plump, rosy cheeks. She has straight nose, defined cheekbones and big, bright ebony eyes. Her skin is coppery with a gloss to it when she stands in the light. It makes me think of her as a shiny new penny. She looks up at me and her eyes get wide.

"Seth? I wasn't expecting to see you here today," she states.

"Hey, Ella. Yeah, I went for a run and decided to check the place out. You know, get a bite to eat, a few menus, the usual. Besides Embry didn't tell me you worked here." I say.

"Yeah he doesn't know actually I just got the job. Like, _literally_ got the job. Just now."

"Wow. How?"

"I put in an application last week and they called me last night and said to come in this morning! Pretty neat _and_ it's 8.50 an hour."

"Sweet!" I reply with a nod of approval.

"So, yeah. Anyway, let me get you a seat." She says and grabs a menu out of a stand next to the entryway. We walk around the corner where she sits me at a booth seat next to the window and hands me a menu. Page 2 has the breakfast foods. I order a plate of biscuits and gravy with a side of bacon and sausage and a glass of O. J. She jots it all down on her note pad using abbreviations I am not quick to recognize before sticking the pen back in her hair, getting my menu and turning away.

Once she is gone, I look around at the place and take it all in. The room isn't very wide so booths line up around the walls without any tables unless you count the counter in the back where ten stools sit lined up next to one another (five on each side). In the middle, there is a little door for the waiters to get in and out and a window for the cooks to look out of and pass the food to them. The plastic leather on the booths and stools is burgundy and the wood is a shade of light tan. Pine maybe. There are small condiment stands on the tables along with a napkin and toothpick dispensers. The floor is mahogany tile and the walls are tan. They are mostly bare except for a few paintings of nature scenes, old photos of Quileutes and early settlers of Forks. I recognize one painting. Or the signature on a painting as Leah's. It's a picture of the cliff next to the beach with a few unidentifiable men about to jump off. I make a note to ask her about that later. Overall, the place gives me a sense of comfort.

Not long after my evaluation Ella comes rushing back with my plate everything looks amazing. Before she leaves, I ask, "Hey, Ella, there wouldn't happen to be some . . . I don't know, 'I'm in the same pack as your boyfriend discount' would there?"

She laughs and says "Sorry, don't think so," before walking away. I turn my attention back to my meal and dig in.


	2. Chapter 2

[In the guide, Stephanie Meyer said that by 2006, there were 17 werewolves all together, but only 10 were named so . . . I had to improvise.]

October 1, 2009

I'm almost finished eating when I hear a howl out in the woods coming from the northeast. I quickly finish and leave fifteen dollars on the table. I run out of the building leaving the scent of the place behind me. As soon as I am in the bushes, I strip and tie my clothes around my leg with a large leather cord. I get a running start and phase before taking off towards Forks, more specifically the Cullen's.

_Jacob? _I ask.

_I'm here, Seth. _He answers.

_What's wrong? Is Leah there?_

_Yeah she's here. And I don't know what's wrong, not exactly. Edward just said to get everybody together. Alice had a vision._

_More vampires?_

_No, she would have seen them._

_Wait a sec. Did she have a vision or not?_

_Yes . . . No . . . It's complicated! Do you remember when the other bloodsuckers were coming? And Alice could only half see the Brazilians? _

_Yeah. _

_Well, it's like that. _

_So, we need to start patrolling and preparing for the end again. _I think sarcastically.

_Ugh! Just get over here. _He tells me and then I can't hear him anymore but other voices fill in his place. Embry, Quil, Aaron, Mark, and Derek. I give them all the basic run down of what Jake told me and soon we are phasing back into ourselves at the Cullen House.

Almost immediately, I am hit by the familiar smell of the vampires; overly ripe cherries, cheap car air fresheners and blood.

Renesmee is waiting for us at the front door. She has a smile on her face when she greets us but her eyes tell us that she's worried. She's grown since I last saw her. It's expected of course but rather than looking eight like last month, she could easily pass for ten. I ruffle her hair when I walk through the door and she laughs her sleigh bell laugh. It eases the tension in her elderly yet childlike eyes.

I follow the others up stairs to their main library where I see Jacob leaning against the wall at the far side of the room with Leah. Embry quickly takes his place with them finishing the Alpha-Second-Third triangle of power. To their right the setting is repeated with Sam, Jared and Paul. They're alone. The rest of his pack must have stayed at home. I stay by the entrance leaning against the door frame. In the center of the room is a long rectangular table. Alice sits at its head Edward on her left and Jasper (the Walking Chill Pill) on her right while Carlisle sits further down the table. Bella stands behind her along with Rosalie and Emmett.

The attentionis on Alice. Carlisle is the first to speak once we're settled.

"Alice, would you tell us what you saw?"

She blinks a few times and puts her fingers to her temples, before opening her mouth to speak.

"Two. Two then Three.-"

"So, five?" Paul interjects.

"_No, two_ and then _three_" she says through gritted teeth. It's easy to tell that she's already frustrated and Paul's interruptions in her pattern of thought only annoy her more.

"A pair. Then a set. Silver and green. Red. A house, white and claret." she continued. "That's what I saw first it . . . it's still not clear though. Now I can see a fight with a girl and a man present, but nothing else. I don't know who they're fighting or why but, I think that someone else might be with them."

She sets her head down on the table and Jasper rubs a hand over her back the feeling hits me too, though much more subtly than it does Alice. Strength. Concentration. Tranquility. Confidence. During this brief pause, I feel Renesmee's hand slip around my ankle.

_It was awful the first time. She kept sputtering and mumbling like she was in a trance. She broke another vase, too. _I get a flash of pictures showing me exactly what she said.

I hadn't noticed her sit down next to my feet on a tiny ottoman. She let's go of my leg and leans back against the bookshelf when Alice begins to speak again.

"Humans . . . possibly. Two at least. The set though. I can't _see_ them at all; I just know that there are three because of what the pair said" she explains the turns her eyes to Sam, "I _do _know that they are coming so they can't be wolves or even hybrids but I can not _clearly _view them either. The only explanation I can think of is that somehow they are _connected_ to you all."

All of us tense up at these words. Alice sits up and glances around the room.

"With that said I'll tell you two other things I do know about them. All of them, the two, the three, the pair, and the set _are dangerous_. The pair will be here tonight. The three are harder to find but if all of them decide to follow the others then they'll be here in another six weeks."

My mind goes into a craze. _Tonight? _We'll have to go on patrols again. Monitor the perimeters around La Push and Forks too. I turn to talk to Jacob but Edward stands up and says in a clear smooth voice

"We will help you. Patrolling, monitoring, fighting, whatever you need. It is the least we could do after what you've done for us all these years."

Jacob speaks next "If that's the case then we'll start assigning post. Mark, Embry and I will stay on the outer borders with some of Sam's"

"Jarred, Brady, and I." says Sam

"Right. Along with Doc, Rosalie and Jasper. Then Seth, Leah, Aaron, Colin, Luke, and Paul will run after us. Edward can go with them"

"Robert, Nathan, and Derek can stay around the reservation with the big one and Bella."

"Yeah. Esmé, Nessie, and Alice can stay here. Just if she sees something else we'll know."

Edward runs out of the room and comes black in a heartbeat. In his hands, he carries a map, a blue sharpie, and a velvet bag. He spreads the map out on the table and spills the contents of the bag on than table; chess pieces.

"White for vampires and black for wolves." Edward says before picking up a king and a queen, which he hands to Jacob and Sam. The rest of us all walk up and retrieve our own pieces, placing them where they tell us to and paying close attention to their movements and coördinates on the map.


	3. Chapter 3

October 1, 2009

_Seth. Seth? SETH! _Leah's "voice" rings in my head.

_Yeah. I'm here, sorry. _

_What's wrong? _

_Nothing. How are things on the east? _

_Good, I think my nose is bleeding from the excessive stench of blood sucker -_

_Leah, _I think warningly.

_- but, good._

I nod my head and look to the left. I can barely make out the sharp crystalline figure of Edward. He must know I am looking at him because he turns to me and wave.

_Are we good? _I ask him.

I see him nod. Good.

_How is Alice?_

"Fine. Her visions haven't become any clearer but now she knows that two of them are definitely human."

_Are those the two coming tonight?_

"She _thinks _so, but she is not certain." he tells me. "You have to give her credit though for even being able to see this. It must mean that they pose a threat for her to see this far into the holes of her vision."

_Still, just remind me to never become a psychic. Not even a one that reads your palm at carnivals._

He laughs. Everything is fine for the most part but I still feel on edge. I close my eyes and listen carefully to my surroundings.

Bugs make up the majority of the nights symphony. My breathing and Edward's add a steady beat. I keep listening: there's a sharp wind blowing in from the Canada, voices from the restaurant in Forks, laughing, someone washing dishes in their home, the others pacing back and forth, all of it mixed in with the faint sound of cars on the interstate. I don't hear anything distinctive or important, let alone dangerous.

That is until one of the cars pulls off on the main road leading into Forks. I bark and signal the others.

_Someone's coming. Get here. Fast! _

They all correspond and I soon hear howling as they come towards us the vamps hot on their heels. They rapidly surround the two of us and Jacob stands in front of me. I relay all the information to Jacob. The car is just two miles away. Jacob decides to go first with Edward. He walks out of our sight range but I can still hear his footsteps hitting the soft ground. He crouches down behind a bush and waits for it to come. The car gets closer and closer to him and soon flies right by. We see the image in his mind.

_It's a jet black 1996 Ford Explorer. XY9-Z42. In the window is a small face with copper-colored hair. The face is covered by a dark blue hat. _

"We should get back to the house and let Alice and Edward sort this out." Emmett says. We all agree.

_I'll stay behind, _Collin says. _Just in case. _Derek feels the same and decides ,along with Emmett, to stay behind.

"The diver was thinking about getting to their new house and how happy his sister will be when they finish unpacking. The girl was dreaming. It was exceptionally vivid; she was alone in the forest surrounded by glowing eyes. It was more of a nightmare, in my opinion, but the strangest part was that she wasn't afraid. She was smiling." Edward finishes telling us what he had seen in the others mind. At the same time he finishes the sketch that he had decided to draw for Alice to see if it would help her see any better.

We are spread out against the walls and furniture in the living room this time. I feel all of us tense up when he hands it to her. She bites her lip and concentrates. "Yes . . . Yes. This is one of them. Nellie, Nysa, Nyamth, or something like that. They just got home. She is about to wake up and talk to her brother, named . . . L-something. Ugh! That's all I can get! I don't know what's wrong with me." she shouts exasperatedly as Jasper moves closer to comfort her. She tosses the picture into the middle of the room where it lands face down. I get off of the couch and reach down picking it up.

It's a girl, obviously. She has a heart-shaped face and big almond-shaped eyes which sit above a pair of well-defined cheek bones. Her hair is cut into a curly, jaw length bob. She has a perfect Cupid's bow-shaped mouth with a full lower lip, the whole thing though is twisted into a wicked smirk.

"She's cute." I decide and suddenly feel twenty-three pair of eyes on me. "Well, _she is._"

Aaron leans over the back of the couch and jerks the paper out of my hand. He looks it over. "She is, but still, no fraternizing with the enemy. It's the first rule of battle strategy." He tells me with a crooked grin on his face. I punch him in the arm.

"So now what?" I ask looking around the room. "We were looking for 'the pair' and we found them. Alice said that 'the set' wouldn't be here for another six weeks. It's pointless to sit in the woods until then."

Jacob looks at Sam and nods their heads in agreement with me. "Seth's right. No point in it. If we decide to do _anything_ it would be to watch the ones already here," Sam says.

"Yeah." Jacob says before Brady yawns. "But for now we should just . . . Go home and get some sleep." A round of approval follows as we all rise from our seats. Jacob stays behind. Leah and I decide to borrow

h Jacobs's car to get back home. We drive through Forks on the way there and as we pass old Calvert Drive I come across a strange scent. It smells like the night-time air; dew, moss, rain and a slight hint of raspberries. Underneath that lay the smell of autumn; pumpkins, a fireplace, maple trees, and cinnamon. I look at Leah and she smells it too.

"Welcome to the neighborhood." Leah mutters under her breath. I chuckle and she cracks a small smile.

"What do you think we'll have to do?" she asks, to no one in particular. I consider the question. They're dangerous (at least that's what Alice said), they pose a threat to the tribe (possibly), and we're werewolves (or shape shifter depending on your need for correct terminology) who, bound by tribal law, must protect La Push no matter what the cost.

"We do what Jacob tells us to do, like always." I say and affectionately hit her on the shoulder. She nods her head and keeps her eyes on the road. I stare out the window into the dark night the trees blur together as our speed increases. It's relaxing. Soon we pass the border diner and I remember something.

"When did you start selling your paintings?"

She gives me a quizzical look and tries to figure out what I'm talking about. Soon she understands, "Oh yeah, they asked me about it before they built the place. They wanted a few nature scenes showing the town and the forest. Gave me eighty dollars a painting and I sold 'em three."

My eyebrows shoot up and my eyes widen. "Sweet, what'd you do with the money?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out, little brother."

"You can't really call me little, I'm taller than you." I say with a playful tone to my voice.

She snorts and says "By three inches."

We bicker back and forth all the way home. When I finally get to my room I don't even take my clothes off, just fall on the bed half asleep before my head hits the pillow.


	4. Chapter 4

October 3, 2009

_I am standing alone in the middle of the forest; at least I think I am. Soon I hear soft footsteps hitting the ground. They are eerily quiet, careful not to crunch any leaves. I look around and my eyes narrow on a bush that starts to shake. I flatten my ears against head and crouch down preparing for an attack that never comes. All that happens is a single movement. A single object is propelled into the air. It does not take long for me to figure out what it is. It is an arrow coming straight at my heart. _

I wake with a jolt and gasp for air. I look around the familiar room and realize what it was; another tormenting dream!

_I am going to go crazy. Or maybe I already have, _I think to myself_. Maybe this _is_ the dream. Maybe my life is the dream. And in reality, I'm high on drugs and strapped down to a hospital bed in a mental institute. _

By the time my heartbeat slows I have a certain realization that drastically improves my mood. Today is Saturday, finally. Alone time. Time to sleep. Time to forget about the teachers that had been super annoyed that I came in late Thursday and downright pissed on Friday because I couldn't focus on my work. Ms. Lorenzo says I need a Spanish tutor. I say that she needs a hobby. Besides when am I going to need to go to Mexico or South America or Spain?

I don't let my mind weigh on that right now though. I look at my options for today. I could go to the beach; the cold water would definitely wake me up. I could go into town and hang out with Leah. No. I could go to Aaron's house and hang out. That would probably be my best option.

First, though, I _need _something to eat. I rush down the stairs and look at the clock on the wall before ransacking the cabinets. It reads one forty-seven. I make a bowl of cereal and heat up the leftover steak from last night along with two omelets and four slices of cold pizza. It's a light meal. I pick up the phone to call Aaron but it begins to ring before I can dial the number. Leah's cell-phone number is displayed on the caller ID.

"What do you want Leah?" I ask her before she gets the chance to beat around the bush. My voice has a bit more malice than I intend for it too.

I can tell that she notices and snaps back at me, "I was going to ask if you would help me out today. I accidentally overbooked myself. I've got a class at 2 and a gallery showing at the same time, but since it's someone's time of the month I guess I'll forget about it!"

"Leah wait! Hold on a second! What do you need me to do?" I ask sympathetically.

"Take the class. It's just a children's basket weaving lesson; Emily will be there to help but I would prefer if you came. Kids like you." she says.

"Alright. I'll be there in half a heart beat." I tell her before hanging up the phone. Basket weaving, mom had taught me when I was little, but the memories were fuzzy. I don't have time to think about that now. I get to the door and slip my converse on. I put a coat on to blend in even though I don't need it. I run to town, saying "Hello" to various neighbors as I go. When I get to town, I walk through the front doors of her shop and shrug my jacket off.

The building itself is very old, dating all the way back to the flood of 1910. You could still see just how high the water had gotten by the lines on the wall. It has had several minor renovations leaving it with its own modern eclectic style. The outside door is made of wood, but painted fire engine red. That is followed by a glass storm door. It has dark hardwood floors but the walls are made of faded, white washed brick. The first room you see to is to the left. It's the office where Leah meets with all of her customers. Then if you follow the hallway you end up in one of four specialized rooms; The Drawing Room, The Pottery Room, The Painting Room (more simply known as the blue room), and The Craft Room. At the End of the hall is a wrought iron winding staircase. If you go up you find yourself in the gallery where Leah displays certain finished pieces. If you go down you find yourself in the basement that looks nothing like a basement. It's her personal workroom slash storage area slash bedroom. Just behind the stairs though is the spare room with a large chalkboard sign that she uses for various things depending on the event. Today the sign tells that it plans to serve as the:

La Push Reservation Children's Basket Weaving Class

Ages 5 to 9

2 to 4

I hear Emily and Leah moving things around and head in that direction. When I enter the room, I see a large foldable table with eight chairs placed around it. In the center of the table are five baskets each filled with different colored reeds. On the Bolton Board in the front of the room are a series of directions and pictures. Leah and Emily are waiting for me at the front of the room.

"Good you're here," Leah says. She starts to explain the directions to me, hastily, but I'm not listening. I am in a daze starring at this alien version of my sister. She doesn't look like she normally does, in a pair of cutoffs and a ratty tee, with her hair in complete disarray. This Leah is clean. Her chin length hair is shiny and bone straight with a single small braid in the front. She has on a dark grey dress, black high heel boots and around her wrist is a small, multi-colored bracelet. This Leah is my beautiful sister that I hadn't seen in years.

"Got it?" she finally asks me at the end of her speech. I nod completely unaware of what she had said. "Good. Then . . . I guess I'm off." She says with a look around the room before leaving. "Wish me luck," she calls over her shoulder.

"Good luck," Emily and I say in unison.

"I can't believe that kid bit you!" Emily says with a laugh. The kids have left and we are cleaning up the room. Everything had went as planned they came, they each made two or three different colored baskets, and they left. The only problem was when a little boy (who I later figured out was actually one of Paul's cousins) bit me on the arm when I tried to fix the giant knot he had sitting in front of him.

"He's related to Paul, I'm surprised he didn't slap me!" I reply. We laugh together at the thought. There is a small pause of silence.

"How do you think its going?" I ask her. We both look up and stare at the ceiling as if by some miracle it will turn into a glass window for us to see through.

"Good. I'm sure of it. If there's one thing your sister loves it's talking and right now it's her moment to shine," she answers with a smile. "Plus we haven't heard any shrieking, so it's safe to say she hasn't phased in front of them."

"Yeah. When is it over?" I ask. She looks at me and rolls her eyes.

"Impatient as usual I see. It won't be for another hour but she promised to take us out for dinner when she closes shop and that's at eight."

"Do you think she'll mind if I leave? I wanted to head out for a while." I ask carefully.

"No, go ahead I'll tell her where you went."

"Thanks, Em." I say and kiss her cheek. She smiles and pushes me away.

I run out the door and through town all the way to Aaron's house. I knocked on his door and wait for him to open up. He lives in a tiny two-bedroom house with his dad after his mom died when he was a kid. It was a light brownish color with black shudders. To be honest it's kind of shabby, but home is where the heart is. Soon enough he comes outside.

"Hey, Seth. Where you been?" he ask.

"Here, there, you know."

"Yeah. So, what'd you want?"

"I've got a few free hours and wanted to see if you're up for some cliff diving." I tell him.

"Sure lemme put some shoes on first."

"Okay."

He steps back inside and I hear him run back to his room and throw on a pair of shoes(no socks) before coming back outside and locking the door behind him. It's a far walk so I'm not surprised when he asks, "Do you want to race?"

I nod my head as we retreat into the surrounding woods. I phase and think to him _Ready. _We crouch down. _Set. _I prepare to launch myself forward. _GO! _We run. I start in the lead going as fast as my legs can carry me. I hear small woodland creatures squeak and squawk before fearfully returning to their homes. I want to laugh but keep my eyes ahead rushing to the cliff. I don't know how many bushes I trample over or how many branches I break but, I'm winning and I know it. I come to an abrupt halt just at the edge of the clearing near the cliffs.

_HA! Beat you! _I think with pride. _Ha, Ha, Ha!_

_Asshole! I was close and you know it. _

Please _you were eating my dust! _I think before I phase back and put my shorts on. He does the same thing. We leave our other clothes in the bushes and walk to the side of the cliff. I think back to the first time I did this; I was _scarred as Hell_. I stand on the edge of the cliff now and look down. The blue grey water is calm today. It gently collides against the rocks, but no matter how soft, calm or still the water may appear, from this high up it always seems to be challenging me. It's as if it's taunting me saying _Hey! Bet you won't jump! Won't even try. Too scared. To afraid. Come on I want to see you shake with fear! I want to see you cry!_

"Ready?" Aaron ask me. I nod and take a step back before running straight ahead. I jump. I am falling. I listen to the wind rush through my ears and hear my heart thumping in my chest. I let out a whoop before curling into a ball and hit the water.

The impact stings slightly but soon I melt into the cold water. I open my eyes and can see almost as well as I can on land. I watch the bubbles rise up around my face and smile. _Why a werewolf? I would have made an awesome merman. _

Next to me, Aaron lands in the water and quickly kicks his way to the surface. I follow him up and take a deep breath. I shake my head around and laugh.

"Want to go again?" he ask. I'm about to answer when I smell something familiar; dew and raspberries. I look up to the road and sure enough it's there but, only for a few moments and I see a flash of copper hair.


	5. Chapter 5

October 3, 2009

Aaron walks back to Leah's shop with me. He decided to invite himself to dinner with us. When we get there, we see that Embry had the same idea. When Leah sees us, she throws her hands up into the air exasperatedly.

"Fine!" she shouts. "But you two are paying for yourselves." We all laugh and squeeze into Leah's car. She and Emily take the front while I end up sandwiched between Embry and Aaron.

"Where are we goin'?" Embry ask.

"Out to that new diner on the border." Emily tells him while Leah starts the car.

"Oh, you mean _Sideliners?_" I say. "Ella works there you know."

"Really," Embry ask. I watch the smile grow on his face. Maybe he won't have to pay after all. "I take it you've been there."

"Yeah, I had breakfast here yesterday. It's actually pretty good," I declare.

When no one replies, Leah turns on the radio and "Apologize" by One Republic plays on the radio. I close my eyes and listen to the song. It begins to rain when we pull into the parking lot. We all rush inside the building and dry off. Sure enough, Ella is the one that comes to greet us. She blushes when Embry tries to kiss her but, pushes him away and says, "Not while I'm working." Leah and I can't help but snicker at him. He glares in our direction as she escorts us to a booth right of the door at the window. She gives us each a menu and asks for our drinks (all Pepsi products) before retreating to the kitchen.

I decided to start the conversation. "So, how did the gallery turn out?"

"It was _fantastic._" Leah says with a large smile on her face. "Lots of people showed up _and _I sold four pieces to this guy from Seattle. He said he wanted them for his office."

"Cool," Embry says. "How much did you make?"

"He gave me a check for fifteen-hundred. Two hundred for a painting, nine hundred for an abstract statue, and another four hundred for a ceramic vas." she says as she absent-mindedly looks over her menu. Thankfully, we all manage to recover from our shock and surprise by the time she looks up. Ella comes back with our drinks and asks for our orders.

"Large BLT with a side of curly fries." I say.

"Same." Embry tells her.

"One meatball sub, please." Leah orders.

"I'll just have a salad," says Emily.

"And I'll have one large pulled pork sandwich with a side of onion rings." Aaron decides.

She leaves us again and Emily starts to tell us a story about something funny that happened yesterday while she was cleaning. I zone in and out while I stare out the window. The rain hits the glass hard making everything too blurry for even me to see. Maybe it's a good thing. Perhaps life truly is as blurry as Alice sees it. That would make it easier for her. I feel a sudden pang of sympathy for her, always having to know the ten possible outcomes for a single situation. There must be _no _way to surprise her. I think about what I had seen today at the cliffs. The pair. Aaron hadn't noticed and I hadn't told him about it. I had silently decided then to tell Jacob about it when we were alone. Still, questions rattled around in my brain.

_Why were they in La Push?_

_Were they looking for _us_?_

_Did they hurt someone? _

Should_ I have told someone?_

_What are they planning to do?  
_

_Are they going to hurt _us_? _

_If so, how?_

And most importantly, _Why?_

All of these questions are interrupted when the now familiar scent fills the air once again. Dew and Raspberries. Pumpkins and fireplaces. I squint out the window and see the outline of their Explorer along with their bodies hurrying across the lot. Soon the door opens with a slight ring of a bell and I whisper to the group, "They're here."

We all try to look discreetly over our shoulders and fail. We look like a robot as we turn our attention to them in unison. They stand together. The girl looks like she did in the drawing but better. Her wet hair is almost blood-red in this light. It's flattened against her head until she shakes it around a bit. She's pale. Extremely pale. I assume it's from the cold but also consider that it could be her true skin tone. Either way it greatly contrasts with her copper hair. Her eyes are green. She is tall. Very tall for a girl. I estimate her to be about 5"11 with a supple frame and slightly defined muscles lacing her arms. She has on a pair of leather knee-high boots. Over a pair of faded blue jeans. On top of her damp, body hugging, dark grey tank top is a forest green hunting jacket. Her entire appearance doesn't strikes me as dangerous like I thought it would. It is much the same as when I looked at the picture. If anything, she reminds me of some thorny flower. A briar rose perhaps.

Standing next to her is a man who I assume to be her brother. His is shorter and combed back almost into a Bella Lugosi Dracula style. It's also darker, auburn in color than his sisters copper. He has a tiny scar running through his eyebrow. He too has the same icy skin tone. He is much taller than she is, probably 6"5. Surprisingly he is _not _in a jacket. Just a long-sleeved black shirt with a pair of dark blue pants that looked like he had slept in them. You can tell that as a child he had probably been considered both lanky and scrawny but now had a noteworthy amount of muscle tonnage. Unlike his sister, his appearance does set off a few red flags.

We look away before they notice and listen carefully. I don't have to try very hard because it's a known fact I have the best hearing in the pack.

"Don't do that, N. You look like a wet dog," the man says.

"Oh, hush. You aren't funny and you know it." she replies. I notice a slight accent to their voice. British, maybe? Or something more exotic?

"Still." he says not paying his comment much attention. By now, Ella begins to make her way over to them.

"Hello, welcome to The Sideliners Diner, may I get you a seat?" she asks. They nod in response. She grabs two menus and starts to guide them toward a booth adjacent to ours.

They glance around the room as they walk by. Leah looks up as they pass us. She looks up just as the man's eyes glide across our table. It's just one look. Not even that, more of a glance. It's barely long enough for him to smile at her. But, it's enough. They say that it just has to be one look. One solitary moment of direct eye contact, and you were bound for life. That's how we know that it has happened. That in those two tiny seconds her entire life has changed. The one thing that could guarantee Leah eternal happiness, love, and joy has just walked by her. All of this we know (because we could practically feel the energy radiating off her) because she had just _imprinted._


	6. Chapter 6

[I am trying to keep the dates as accurate as possible however the 24th is a false date for something that truly happened on the 4th of October 2009.]

October 3, 2009

"Leah!"

"No"

"Don't

"_Sit down!" _I hiss at her while Emily and I grab each of her arms and pull her down. "Can you just calm _down_? We have to do this carefully." She looks around the table before her eyes settle on me and I see the desperately hopeful look in her eyes. I feel terrible for denying her this right, the one thing she has begged for since Sam broke it off with her.

"I'm sorry. B-but . . . He - we. . . Please?" she tries to say. She glances anxiously over her shoulder at the man every eight seconds, like clockwork. She starts to shake slightly and I worry that she is about to phase when I realize that she's nervous. Anxious, even. I take her head in my hands and look her in the eye.

"Calm down okay. Just listen. We'll have to talk to Jacob about this. But, after that, it'll be okay. You can be together." I say trying to calm her down. "You know the law. No one can touch him now."

"You're right," she says. If I look into her eyes I can still the concern in her eyes, but she's not shaking anymore. She has control over her body again. "Okay, I'm okay."

"Really?" Emily asks. "If not we can go. If it's too hard,-"

"No!" Leah snaps, before regaining control. "No. I can stay. I want to listen. Maybe I'll figure out his name."

She has a smile on her face and faith in her words, but when she looks at me, I see the internal struggle playing out in her eyes. She puts her hands in her lap and focuses on the pattern in the wooden table. It's obvious what she's doing. So, for Leah's sake I eavesdrop on the others conversation with her. At first, it's extremely tedious. While they decide what to eat Ella brings us our food and we all start to have our meal. Leah seems to have lost her appetite but she still _tries _to eat, for show. When Ella takes their order things start to get more interesting.

"I would not stare so hard at her if I were you," the girl says. Her minor accent is definitely European. Russian, I guess.

"What are you talking about? The waitress?" the man asks nonchalantly. He's shares her strange burr though does a better job of hiding it. Only someone paying _very _close attention would notice it.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about and it is not her."

"Then who?" he ask innocently.

"Forget about. Clearly, you do not want to coöperate. I wouldn't waste my time. She's probably spoken for. Besides, I like it here and I don't want to have to pack up in the middle of the night because you're about to get arrested for attempted murder." she says playfully though I hear the serious undercurrent in her voice.

"Whatever. You were gone all day, I hope you found something worth looking at," he says.

"You could say that."

Her answer is followed by opening of a coat pocket and setting something hard down on a table. Whatever it is slides across the table. I look to Embry who has a better view. He shrugs and whispers, "Brown package."

I hear the man open it up. He doesn't say anything. I look back at Embry and he says, "It's a book from that store uptown something called,_ Legends and Folklore: Tribes of Olympia."_

"Page 57," the girl says. "Pro-" before she can finish Ella comes back with their food. I hear one of them begin to eat while the other (probably the brother) starts to read.

I can all but hear the smile in his voice "Not bad, Nyx. Not bad at all."

"Thanks, that was all though." Nyx continues once they're alone again. "The only reason I even bothered to buy _that_ was the way it's written. It's . . . _perplexing, _as if the person who wrote it was just saying something that everyone knew. However, at the same time it's as if he wants it to stay a secret. Almost like telling, you that 'X' marks the spot then giving you a bogus map. It's ingenious. Extremely annoying, but ingenious."

"Either way it's a great start. We need to finish unpacking when we get home, before the twenty-fourth," the man says. The sister must nod her head because I don't hear an answer. They stop talking and start eating.

_What's the 24__th__? _I think.

We all turn to Embry. "Well? What did the book say?" asks Emily. She and Leah are literally on the edge of their seats.

"I don't know the way he held it covered the page. I _do know _that we need to get a copy of that book." Embry says. We all nod our heads in agreement.

"I'll go." Aaron volunteers. "The guy that works there knows my dad, maybe he can tell us about the girl too."

"You think so?" Leah asks with a nervous glance over her shoulder.

"If not," I say "Money talks."

Leah nods then looks back over her shoulder and stares longingly at the back of his head. She's about to look away when he abruptly turns around and meets her eye. He smiles at her and I see the blood rush to her cheeks before Emily puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Not now, Leah." Emily says and shakes her head. I see the man raise an eyebrow. Leah looks at him out of the corner of her eye then back at Emily.

"I-I-I have do have to go. I'm sorry." Leah says and begins to scoot out of the booth. Emily lets her out and she rushes out of the door into the rain. We all stare after her not quite sure what to say. Then I hear a small commotion from the other side of the room.

"Where are you going?" the girl asks in a worried voice. "Lorcan, answer me!"

"I'll be right back, just . . . Here." He reaches into his pants pocket, pulls out his wallet, and tosses it to her. She catches the wallet and looks down at it before returning her attention back to him. The anxiety is growing in her eyes. When he spoke again he sounded frustrated, distressed and most of all in a rush. "She just . . . Look I - I just have to see what's wrong." With that, he runs out of the diner after Leah.

His sister - Nyx - stands alone looking shocked. She stares at the door then looks at the wallet in her hand then back at the door. Her eyes roam around their table at half eaten meal in front of her. Her hair falls into her face when she slumps back into her seat. She lets out a sigh and pushes her hair back. She glances over at us and I realize how strange we must look, Emily and Embry sanding, Aaron still sitting, with me half out of my seat in the process of getting up. She looks at each of us individually, starting with Emily and ending with me.


	7. Chapter 7

October 3, 2009

I know why Leah felt the way she did because _now_ I feel it too. I understand how she felt when Lorcan walked by her because now I _feel the same way_. Nothing else matters any more. Every emotional and physical tie to my life breaks apart and falls away. The only thing left is a solid, indestructible, _imperishable_, golden chain linking me to her. But it's not over. My overwhelming emotions only intensify when a small string of future memories fly through my mind. She and I sit alone at the beach our hands tangled together, her head placed into the crook of my neck. A wedding years from now, with me waiting for her at the altar. I open my eyes to see her lying next to me as we make a tangle of limbs. And at first, I think the last one is a flash back then I realize that the child running across the grass is mine.

When I flip back to the present, I am still staring at her even though she has looked away. I realize that I was wrong about something. Her eyes aren't green, at least not both of them. One eye is green and the other is grey. One eye is emerald, the other is the bright silver, and together they paint a picture. One eye is a lush pasture and the other is the moon hung in the night sky shining over it. Altogether, I see her in a completely new light. Her skin glows and her eyes shine. Her full lips seem to call her to me. Her neck has an elegant curve to it and her curvilinear body is much more pleasing to the eye.

I regret telling Leah what I told her because I know I wont be able to follow my advice.

Embry's voice finally lifts me out of my stupor. "Should we talk to her?" Emily looks at him like she's going to say something but, I volunteer before she has the chance.

"I'll go!" I practically shout and they all turn to look at me. I think that I hide my love for this girl that I barely know but it's clear that Aaron can see it. He and Embry look at each other and make a move to stop me but I bolt from my seat and quickly walk to her. I'm two-thirds of the way there when the stop pursuing me.

She notices me approaching her and looks at me. I have to remind my self to breathe. She looks at me with a look containing both suspicion and resentment. I raise my hands in the air.

"I . . . I just want to talk." I say in a peaceful voice. She keeps looking at me, now a hint of indifference in her stare. I try again. "Can I sit?" I ask and nod my head toward the table. She shrugs and waves her hand gesturing at the empty seat in front of her. I sit down across from her and she leans her head back against the booth. I open my mouth to speak when she finally talks.

"Where did she take him?" she asks forcefully. "The girl you were with, where did she and Lorcan run off to?"

"Um. . . She . . . Uh? . . . -"

"You don't know do you?" she asks again. I hear the disappointment in her voice and feel sorry for her.

"No. I don't but, if I know Leah I can promise you that he'll come back in one piece." I try to say convincingly.

"Sure," she says absent minded and pushes her plate away from her. Ella quickly walks by and takes it away from her.

"I know you're probably worried -"

"_Worried?_" she asks and gives me a look of disbelief, her accent growing. "_Worried _is how you feel when you take a _test_ you did not study for. _Worried_ is how you feel when you have misplaced you favorite _CD_. _This _is _apprehensively vexing! _So before you start throwing around such mundane words like _'worried' _go let _your _sibling run away from you with some absolute _stranger _and tell me how _you _feel about it and I can _bet _that you won't use the word _'worried'! _You _grebanyy pridurok!"_

She shakes her fist at me and slams it down with so much force that it shakes the table. Before I know what I'm doing, I take her fist into my hand and spread her fingers back out. Her hands are smooth but slightly calloused. She raises an eyebrow at me accusingly but doesn't say anything.

"I _can_ tell you." I say. She tilts her head to the left in an almost distinctly avian manner. "Despite your accusations I _can_ tell you how it feels to have a sibling run off and not know whether they'll come back." By now, I can tell that I have her attention. Her hardened face softens as she lifts her head back up. "That '_girl_' your brother ran off with is my sister, Leah. She went through a rough patch in her life just after she graduated high school. She would run off for days and not call or leave a message. My mom, dad, and I would be it would be _'apprehensively vexed' _as well. Not to motion that to my family and me you two are complete strangers so we're pretty much in the same position."

She looks at me like she is fighting back the urge to roll her eyes but instead says something that surprises me. "So, this happens a lot around here?"

"You could say that." I tell her with a smile. She shakes her head and pulls her hand out of mine to push her hair back. I had forgotten that I was holding it but now I miss its warmth. I pull my hand back as well and sit them on the table in front of me. She mumbles something under her breath in another language. When she looks back up at me I see a certain cheerfulness in them that wasn't there before.

She smirks at me and asks "Your sister, she doesn't have any records of . . . stealing kidneys does she." She laughs at her own joke; a jovial noise that fits her appearance. It's a beautiful and spirited. I don't realize how happy it makes me until she stops. Her laugh is contagious and without it the silence in the room seems unbearable.

"No, but as cold as it is it wouldn't be too hard." I reply hoping she'll laugh again. She just smiles.

"How long does this place stay open?" she asks.

Ella, who is walking by automatically answers "We stay open until 2 a.m."

"Well," she says "I guess I'm going to be here a while." she says with a nod.


	8. Chapter 8

October 3, 2009

"If you want I can stay with you." I offer.

"Don't you have to stay anyway, for Leah?"

"Well, I guess so, but . . ." I stutter and try to find the words that flee from my mind every time I look into her eyes. I open my mouth to try again and hear a snicker behind me.

I suddenly remember the other three people sitting away from us. Four, now that Ella has joined them. I turn around to look at them. Emily's eyes are watching me and Aarons are looking at the wall but I see the trace of a smile on his face.

"Friends of yours?" she asks and I turn my head around to face her. She jerks her chin over to the four of them.

"Yeah." I begin to explain. "The boys are Embry and Aaron we're pretty close. The short one is Ella, Embry's girlfriend. The other girl is Emily, my . . . _cousin_-in-law, I think. Cousin-in-law is real thing, right?" I ask and she nods yes. "Yeah. We uh all live next to each other." I lie. I know not to break the werewolf business out yet. At least not, right away.

I can imagine her reaction now if I decided to tell her now. _Hey, I know we just met but I'm already insanely in love with you, so much that it causes me physical pain to be away from you. Also it's not just because I already think your perfect and amazing (which I totally do) but because my genes are telling me that if I had kids with you they would make great werewolves because, well that what we are. It's a tribal thing and all of the descendants of this old chief Taha Aki can shape shift into these _huge _wolves. _And _we do this to protect our lands from vampires who just so happen to live about ten miles away from you._

I almost laugh until I remember what Alice told me about them. What she labeled them. What she labeled _her._

_Dangerous. _It hurts me to think about it. Suddenly I'm filled by thoughts of Jacobs's reaction and worry about what he'll tell us to do. _He can't make me hurt her_, I reassure myself. Besides, even if he did say something I'd still see her. I'd fight for her. I know that I would.

Her melodious voice wakes me out of my daze. "Embry, Aaron, Emily, Leah, and Ella. What is your name then? Jacob?" she asks. I can't help but laugh. I shake my head no and on a whim ask her to guess. "Paul? Zachary? Jordan? Mitchell? David? Jason? Cody? Lloyd? Bob?" I shake my head at all of these. Finally, though after Mike, Cory, Lee, and Jordan I give her a clue.

"It starts with an 'S'." I say.

She tilts her head to the side, raises an eyebrow, and opens her mouth slightly while biting the corner of her lip. Her eyes float around the room.

"Samuel?"

"No."

"Sacha?"

"Nope."

"Sydney?"

"_Hell, _no. Isn't that a girl's name?"

"No. A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carlton."

"Oh."

"What about Solomon?"

"Definitely not." I say with a laugh. She glares at me.

"Seth?"

"Yes."

"Okay what about - wait. You said yes," she says smiling. I nod. "Your name is Seth. Seth." Every time she says my name, my heart skips a beat. She ponders over it for a moment before officially introducing herself to me.

"I'm Nyx."

"Nyx?" I ask. I heard her perfectly but I just wanted an excuse to say it. It is such a unique name. Short and sweet, I decide. In my head, I involuntarily imagine our names tied together. Seth & Nyx. It makes me smile.

"Yeah," she says. "It means night in Ancient Greek."

"_Ancient _Greek? You know Ancient Greek?" I ask in disbelief.

"Yeah, I learned it when I was younger. Mostly it was to listen to my grandpa tell the story it sounded better in Greek than English. "She explains

"Story?" I ask. She bobs her head up and down.

"Yes," she says and begins to tell me the history behind it. "You see in mythology, Nyx is the daughter of Chaos and a primordial Goddess of the Night. She lived in the West beyond the land of Atlas he was Titan who was cursed to hold the world on his shoulders. However, the story that my grandfather told was that my mother had once dreamt that her firstborn daughter would travel all of the world both near and far, reeking havoc in the night and causing chaos wherever she went. There was a lot more to it that that but that's the sum of it."

"Have you yet? Destroyed the world and all?" I ask.

"Maybe," she says coyly. A smirk grows on her face as we begin to fall into an easy conversation.

1:38 a.m. October 4, 2009

We fill in the time with a somewhat trivial exchange. Nyx's concern for her brother grows with every passing hour. She maintains one of three faces throughout the conversation, either a smirk, coy smile or a poker face. I find out very little about her in the great space of time. She travels a lot, mostly with her brother, she has only been in 'the Americas' (as she called them) for a very short time and they had recently come into possession of an old Victorian home in Forks. _She _however had found out quite a lot about both the area and me. They were mostly things that I would consider insignificant but she seemed to hang on my every word.

"So, if about 35 hundred people live here then do you have your own hospital or do people just ride to Port Angeles when they're injured."

"No we have our own hospital. It's nice as far as hospitals go. Especially since Dr. Cullen started working there." I say.

"Dr. Cullen?" she asks.

"Yep." I say and instantly regret bringing him up. "He moved out here about six years ago with his kids."

"So he's married?"

"Yes, but I think I phrased that wrong. They aren't his kids. They're foster kids. Their all grown now though. Two of them are married actually." I say and try to draw the attention away from them while answering her question. "Did I tell you about the beach yet?"

"Yes. Tell me more about the Cullens," she says. I can't _not _answer her it would just arouse more suspicion.

"They live just outside Forks. There is Dr. Carlisle Cullen. Then there's his wife Esmé. His oldest kid is Emmett. He was in the same grade as the twins Rosalie and Jasper Hale. Then there is Edward and Alice." I say trying to give as little information as possible.

"You mentioned that a few of them were married. May I ask which ones?"

I sigh before answering. "Emmet and Rosalie were married a last year. Then Edward married Charlie's daughter Bella. Charlie is the sheriff."

"Interesting." she says before dropping the subject and turning it around on me. "Is any of your family married?"

"Uh, well. My mom and dad were married until he died back in 2006, then my mom started dating Charlie a while after that. Then of course Emily and Sam are married and he's my distant cousin. Same thing for Paul except that he's engaged." I say not paying too much attention to my words.

"Paul?" she asks.

"Yeah, he's my other friend, Jacob's, sister's fiancé." I say.

"How do all of you know each other?" she asks and I realize that I've given away too much. I feel Embry's eyes boring into the back of my head. "The way you talk about them it's like they're your cousins but you say you're only _distantly_ related to a few of them. I could still see you being friends if you weren't born so far apart."

I stutter at a loss for words. I try to find some excuse. I know now isn't the best time to tell the truth, especially given the circumstances, but I hate lying to her.

_Ding._

I look over my shoulder at the sharp noise. Above the door is a small bell that rings every time someone opens the door. When I look beneath it, I see Leah standing in front of Nyx's brother Lorcan. Both of them are soaking wet and Leah has a leaf in her hair. Their holding hands. Nyx stands up and starts to walk over to them. At the same time, Emily stands up and walks toward Leah pulling her slightly away from him. She whispers into her ear. "Let them have moment." Nyx stands in front of him and tilts her head back to look him in the eyes. She wears an emotionless mask over her face.

"Vy ponimayete, chto vam pridetsya ob yasmit eto mne na poyezdku domoy, ne tak li?" she asks in a language I can't understand.

"Da." he replies. I'm pretty sure that means yes. "Prosto dayter mne poproshchat' sya."

She nods her head and he turns away from her back to Leah. Aaron, Embry, and Ella start get ready to leave when Emily comes back to them. Nyx walks back over to me and keeps her head down ignoring her brother. I lean down, put two of my fingers under her chin and lift her head. I stare into her eyes for a moment and get lost in their mismatched beauty. She tilts her head to the side again and I chuckle.

"Let me see your phone for a minute. She reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out an expensive looking Blackberry. She hands it to me warily. I punch a few numbers in and save them as a new contact under my name.

"Just in case you need me," I say as I pass it back to her. She looks up at me and shakes her head.

She turns around to find her brother and ends up with a first hand look at the side affects of imprinting. Leah has her hands on Lorcan's neck with her lips placed gracefully on his. Her eyes are closed and it's easy to tell she's in a daze. A few seconds later, they pull away and stare into each other's eyes for a moment. Lorcan whispers goodbye to her and let's go of her face. He looks over to Nyx whose eyes are still wide with shock. He smiles and her expression goes from shocked and amazed to annoyed. She hastily walks up to him and grabs him by the arm pulling him to the door.

"Come on," she says. Just before, she leaves though she turns her head towards me and waves. I feel a smile spread across my face.


	9. Chapter 9

1:50 a.m. October 4, 2009

"Guys we close in ten minutes so at least _try _to make this quick," Ella tells us. Emily goes outside to start the car and Ella retreats to the kitchen. Leah and I sit side by side in the booth. Embry has his arms folded across his chest and Aaron has his face set into such a deep scowl I'm sure that it'll stick that way. Together they look like a pair of angry parents.

"I'm not sure who to start with." Embry declares.

Aarons face moves just enough for him to respond. "Seth he made us _watch _him." I think this is the first time I've ever wanted to punch him. _Really, _punch him.

"Right. _What were you __thinking__?_ _I'll _tell you what you were thinking. _Nothing! _That's because you _weren't thinking! _Do you have any idea what you could have done? First of all, you nearly broke the treaty on either side. -"

"That's not fair," I interrupt. My rage is growing. How _dare_ he start blaming me? What is he blaming me for _anyway_? _Falling _in_ love_? "You _know _we're allowed to them! Or have you just _forgotten_ about Ella?-"

"_That's_ different Seth," Aaron says deciding to join in. At the same time Embry shouts, "_Don't _bring her into this!" He begins to shake. I know that I should stop but I can't.

I hear Leah start to yell at Aaron. "You don't even _understand_!" It surprises me at how quickly this has escalated. A quick flash of the smiling conversation I had with Nyx and it seems worlds away.

"Why not? You're telling me I shouldn't care about Nyx so _obviously_, _you_ don't care about her, you bastard-"

I don't get to finish my sentence. He jumps on me and we roll to the ground. At the same time, I see Leah begin to pursue us when Aaron grabs her collar and pulls her back. She turns on him just as Embry throws the first punch. He hits me in the jaw and I feel the vibration spread across my skull. I kick him in the stomach and before I know it, it turns into an all out brawl. For every punch, he throws another one of mine knocks him back. I hear Ella run out of the Kitchen. She tries to pull me off him, begging me to stop. I don't think as I push her into the booth. "Stay out of it," I snarl at her. I don't recognize my voice. Embry pins me to the ground and slams my head into the ground. He draws his hand back to hit me when I hear a deafening scream.

"_WHAT _IS _GOING ON? _YOU'RE _ACTING _LIKE _RAPID DOGS1" _

We all stop and look toward the door. Jacob is standing shirtless in the doorway with Emily behind him. They're both soaking from the rain. Judging by his lack of clothes, I can tell that he ran over here in wolf form. _Emily must have called him_ I think. He storms into the room and I see Leah jump off Aaron. Embry gets off me and I pick myself up off the floor. I offer Ella my hand to help her out of the booth and she waves it away. She walks over to Embry who now sits one of the bar stools. She ask how he is with her voice wavering. He assures her that he's all right and wraps an arm around her. I feel a pang of guilt. It's bad enough that I insulted their relationship but, I had to bring up his parentage too.

"_What _did you do?" Jacob ask no one in particular. We all look around at each other in shame. I hang my head down and prepare to answer but surprisingly it's Leah who answers.

"I imprinted on someone. Well, _we_ imprinted on two people. That is Seth did too, on Lorcan's little sister." She explains rather bluntly. I look to Jacob and can tell that he didn't expect that.

He looks between the two of us and I nod my head in agreement with Leah. He's still confused so I take my turn explaining it to him. "We all went out for dinner, courtesy of Leah, and as we were enjoying our meal the two of them walked in. Leah was first. It was too much for her to handle so she ended up running out side and rather unexpectedly, he followed her leaving his sister behind. I was next and as soon as I saw her, I knew. I ended up sitting and talking to her for a while and . . . may have _almost accidentally _broken the treaty."

"But you can tell them about us," he says. Leah and I nod our heads.

He looks back to Emily and asks, "Wait, _what's _the problem?" Before she can answer Edward, Jasper, and Alice all burst though the door.

"See I knew they" Alice starts off excitedly before her voice begins to decrescendo, "Would . . . be . . . here. Damn it!" She quickly turns on all of us. "What happened?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." Jacob says with a sigh. Edward steps up and takes his turn retelling the events of tonight.

"Based off of Alice's visions and the mishmash assortment of thoughts running through your minds this is what I can piece together. The pair that we saw the other night came into La Push today. Alice saw them decide to come here for dinner when Leah imprinted on the man -"

"His name is Lorcan." Leah says defensively.

"Whose name is Lorcan." Edward continues. "That's when it was disconnected. I was not at home at the time so I did not see her see what was happening. Therefore, she decided not to speak up until she was sure of what she saw. When Leah ran out with Lorcan, _Seth_ went to console his sister, Nyx, when he imprinted on her. By then the visions were cut of completely but later did Alice see Lorcan decide to retrieve his sister. By then she felt confident enough in her vision to alerted Jasper who thought it would be best to tell Jacob, since it was on his territory, who at the time was out hunting with Renesmee. Once they found him and he knew I was home. I invited myself and we all took the car, which was why it took us so long to get here. Seth _almost _told Nyx about himself and us Cullens. Leah came back before he could though and because they were holding hands and smiling Embry assumed that she had told him. Granted she did but it was completely ridiculous and wrong. The pair left about fifteen minutes ago and that is when Aaron and Embry confronted both Seth and Leah about it. Let's just say it took a nasty turn and they all exchanged blows but now everyone feels guilty about it and wants to apologize."

Everyone is staring at him when he finishes his _extremely_ accurate summary of the earlier events. Jacob has a mixed expression on his face. It is both partly surprised and partially angry. He looks over to Leah and his face finally comes to a happy medium between the mixed emotions as he confronts her.

"You _told_ him?"

"You could say that." she says surreptitiously.

"What do you mean?" he asks somewhat frustrated.

"Well, Jacob, surprisingly I was both very practical _and_ logical about this. I took a page from your book and told him much in the same way you told Charlie. I told him about _me_. _Only _about me. He thinks that I'm the only werewolf in the tribe. I transformed in front of him, explained what I was, and told him about imprinting. He wasn't even surprised. He told me that one of the reasons he had actually come here was because he had heard of a few legends in this area about werewolves and that I only proved his earlier assumptions. That book we saw him with earlier told him about the Spirit Warriors, Taha Aki, the Third Wife; the whole deal. He even asked me about the Cold Ones." her voice lowers as she tells this part of her unbelievable story. "I had to lie about that a lot. I told him that then vampires _had existed_ but that they were nearly extinct now and _never_ came here. He believed me wholeheartedly."

"What about the other reasons? The other reasons they came here." Aaron asks Leah.

"I asked him about that. He said that his sister and him had just gotten out of some hard times in the south and wanted a change of scenery. I wanted to believe him but I knew that he wasn't completely telling me the truth," she says, her voice barely louder than a whisper. I feel bad for her.

"Still, Alice told us that" Jacob says. I know where Jacob is heading and both figuratively and literally stand with Leah. "They were-_are_ dangerous. _We _don't_ know_-"

"But, _I _know, Jacob. I know that he loves me. Besides, I know that Lorcan wouldn't hurt us. He wouldn't hurt _me! _Isn't that enough?" she says defensively.

"Leah's right." I say. "She knows what she's doing and we should trust her. Not to mention, you said that we should start watching them now we have a reason to. And on top of that what's done is done. There's nothing we can do about it."

Jacob sighs and looks around the room. He shakes his head. "Fine. Watch them. I can't stop you," He says. "But if any thing suspicious happens you tell me. Now go home."

He turns to Emily and asks her if he can follow her home and talk to Sam. She agrees and soon we all follow Ella outside. She tells us that the cook will lock the place up. Jasper, Alice, and Edward all drive home to alert the others. The rest of us all pile into Leah's car. Leah and Emily sit in the front while, Jacob, Aaron, Embry, Ella and I squeeze into the back. Ella sits in Embry's lap trying to give the rest of us space. Leah drops us all off one by one until it's just me and her.

We sit in silence for a moment before she looks at me out of the corner of her eye and says "You too, huh?"

"Yep." I say with a smile. I thought about Nyx and smiled. Then I realized how far away she was from me and felt a wrench of pain in my stomach. I wondered if Leah felt the same way. If she did she did a good job of hiding it.

Suddenly she laughed. I looked at like she was crazy. "What's so funny?" I ask her and begin to laugh too, even though I don't know why.

"What a day, huh? This morning if someone had told me that I'd confess my love to a complete stranger before 10 p.m. I would have called them crazy. But here I am." she says and checks her watch "It's 2:37 and I'm unconditionally, absolutely, and utterly in love with a man whose name I didn't even know seven hours ago."

"I know what you mean." I say. "What's he like?"

She thinks about it for a while before answering me. "He's sweet and kind. Charming even. As soon as you meet him you can tell that he just has that kind of carefree personality. He smiled a lot when I told him about it. He balances me out. When I was around him I felt like I would never be angry again. He makes me smile."

I nod my head. Then a question begins to form in my mind. "You left the diner at nine o'clock. You didn't get back until one thirty. It took you four hours to explain all that to him?" I ask her.

"Well it would have taken two but it was pouring. I had to get him out of the rain." she says.

"Where did you go Canada?"

"I took him back to the shop. The basement if you want to know the specifics." she says.

"But, still, _four hours_?"

By now were in the driveway of our house the porch light is on. She turns the car off before turning to me with an incredulous look on her face. "Seth, I know you aren't the sharpest knife in the case but do you _really_ need me to explain this to you?"

I feel my face turn eight shades of red as it all sinks in. "Oh God! Leah!" I shout. She shrugs and gets out of the car. She stops halfway to the door and turns around.

"You asked." she says. Then she turns back around and runs into the house. I wait until I hear her close the door to her old room and settle down before going into the house myself.


	10. Chapter 10

12 p.m. October 4, 2009

_I am at the beach. First Beach. It is high tide. The water is calm and dark grey under the night sky. I look around and see someone sitting on the rock. Their hair is pulled underneath of a dark blue cabbie's hat. They sit facing away from me. I notice a tiny lock of copper hair sticking out from under the hat when the wind blows my way. Dew and raspberries. I smile and walk over to Nyx. I sit next to her, wrap my arm around her waist, and pull her close to me. Her hat falls off and her waves fall out around her face. She shakes her head and runs a hand through it. She leans back against me and nestles her head in the crook of my neck. She gives me a light kiss. Then I feel her smile. "What?" I ask her. She only laughs. I do not notice the wind picking up or the storm clouds coming in. "What?" I ask her again not paying attention to the lightning that strikes out at sea. I feel the wind continue to pick up but do not pay it any mind. Finally, she lifts her head and looks me in the eye. Her eyes are blood-red. I hear the thunder. I feel the wind. I see the lightning. She smiles maliciously at me. "Don't you know anything, my love? You are _all _going to _die." _Then she digs her teeth into my jugular._

I wake up sweating. I sit straight up and my bed and remember that it was just a dream. I fall back onto my pillow and groan. _You are all going to die. _Her voice still rings in my ears. _NO! _I think forcefully. Screw what Alice said. Nyx is _good. _I know she is. My stomach growls and I get out of bed. I stumble down stairs in a pair of ancient sweat pants. Mom is down stairs sitting at the table with the newspaper when I walk into the kitchen. Leah is in the kitchen making eggs and bacon. I slide some bread into the toaster before I greet them.

"Morning, Mom. Leah."

"Good morning, honey." Mom says.

"Morning, Seth." Leah says before cracking three more eggs into a separate frying pan. "I was just filling Mom in on all the events of last night. What's you're girlfriends name again?" she asks playfully. "Nellie or Mildred or Ginger, something like that, right?"

I flick her on the back of the head after I set the bread back on top of the microwave. "_Nyx. Nyx." _I say. "What was your's name? Lysander right?" I pick a piece of bacon out of the pan and duck before she can hit me with the spatula. I burn my mouth while I eat it but it taste great. Fried to a crisp. I walk into the dining room and sit down next to Mom. She puts her crossword puzzle down and stares at me. _Hard. _

"What?" I ask her curiously. "What?" I get a quick flash back of my dream and it sends a shiver up my spine. I try to push the image of Nyx with red eyes to the back of my mind.

"Hmm," she says and twists her mouth around to the side, her thinking face. "You don't have it yet."

"Have what?"

"The Look. It's this dazed completely absent-minded totally in love look most of you get after you imprint. Your sister did though when she walked downstairs this morning." she says and looks at Leah. She has a faint smile on her face. Mom looks back at me and smiles. "I'm happy for you two. _That_, I believe, is certainly one of the rewards of being what you are. An almost guaranteed perfect love life." she says and rubs my hair around. I have let my hair get kind of shaggy, but I don't want to cut it. I smile. These are the moments I love the most with my mom.

"Nyx and Lorcan then. How old are they, Leah? You didn't say."

"Lorcan is twenty-five." Leah says and scrapes the eggs onto three different plates. "He said Nyx was sixteen but that her birthday is this month on the twenty-sixth."

"Dating an older man, L?" I ask her jokingly. She waves the spatula at me and metaphorically waves the question away.

"I'd worry less about me and start thinking about presents if I were you. The twenty-sixth is just twenty-two days away."

I consider it. What do you get the love of your life that you barely know? Leah brings our plates into the living room and we start to eat. If I want to know what to get her, I'll have to get to know her better. I'll have to - _get _to spend time with her. I smile. I finish eating in a hurry, run back upstairs, and get dressed.

"Hey Leah can I borrow your car?" I ask. She shakes her head no.

"I have to go into Port Angeles for some new supplies. I can drop you off if you want." she offers. I shake my head.

"No, I'll just walk." I say.

"Okay."

Mom pokes her head up and says, "Just be at Charlie's by seven, we're having dinner at his house."

"Got it. Seven at Charlie's house." I reply and begin to walk out of the house when the phone rings. It sits on a small table next to the door with a note pad beside it. Being the closest one, I pick it up off the hook.

"Clearwater residence, Seth speaking."

"Wow, if everyone I knew answered that way my contact list would be a lot longer." Nyx says in a sarcastic tone. I smile.

"Oh, Hey." I say surprised that she called.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out today." she states nonchalantly, "If you are too busy though"

"No that's cool. I'm actually _very _free today." I say trying to hide my excitement. I hear her laugh at the other end of the line.

"That's music to my ears. I'll meet you at your place then?" she asks.

"Yeah. See you soon." I say.

"Bye."

I hang up the phone and look up. Leah looks at me and laughs. I roll my eyes and decide to wait on the couch.

Ten minutes later, I sit with my head laid back against the couch when I hear the noise of a motorcycle gliding across the pavement. It runs far too smoothly to be one of Jacobs's bikes (even if he won't admit it).

Another three minutes later, it pulls onto gravel and into our driveway; I walk outside and see something that stuns me.

Standing in the driveway is Nyx with a motorcycle helmet under her arm. Behind her is a shiny black Ducati 848. I feel my mouth drop and eyes widen. She runs a hand through wavy hair and shakes it around. She has a pair of black pants tucked into a pair of brown boots. Above that is dark red top and the same dark green jacket from the previous night. When she meets my eye, she smiles. I quickly snap my mouth closed and walk over to her. "Hey, Nyx."

"Seth," she says. She puts her helmet on the handle and starts to walk up to me. She opens her mouth to say something when she looks behind me and sees Leah walk out of the house.

"Hello," Leah says and waves.

"Hey," she says and nods her head. "You're Leah right?" she asks.

"Yeah, I guess your brother told you about me." Leah half asks half says. Either way I see a small blush begin to grow on her face.

"Yeah. He mentioned you. Don't you two have a date tonight?" Nyx asks her.

"What?" Leah asks clearly the first time she had heard about it.

"Oh! Guess I was not supposed to tell you about that. It was supposed to be a surprise." Nyx says regretfully. "Pretend you did not hear that. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Leah says before hoping into her car. "I'll call him. Anyway I have to go but, I hope you and Seth have a nice day." With that, she pulls out and drives away.

I look back at her after Leah is out of sight. "What did your brother say?" I ask her. The question catches her off guard. It takes her a moment to answer.

"Oh, not much. As much as I asked him only told me that he had met her once and now he loved her. He was being stubborn but I trust him and his judgment," she says before looking back at me mischievously. "Besides if she's anything like you she can't be too bad."

She punches me lightly in the arm and laughs. However, I see her shake her hand slightly before it returns to her pocket. I hope she didn't hurt herself. I start to reach out my hand. "You here alone." she asks before I can address the problem.

"Oh, no. My mom is here. Do you want to meet her?" I ask timidly.

"Sure." she says and a small smile forms on her face. She walks ahead of me on the way up to the door. She has a full look of certainty on her face and poise in her steps. I open up the door and watch her look around the living room. I look around at my familiar home with her and wonder how she sees it. We have hardwood floors; the couch is a light green with a dark red chair next to it. It was dad's favorite but of course, she won't know that. A large burgundy rug sits underneath the lacquered oak table. Leah picked it out at the store one day when she was little. The walls are beige and in one corner are flat screen TV that had been a Christmas gift from the Charlie. The room is has a comfortable homey feel to it. I know that anyone could tell that.

"It's nice. She says looking around. She must hear my mom washing dishes because she begins to glide her way into the kitchen.

"Mom," I say. She hastily turns around while drying a glass plate. She looks over Nyx with wide eyes.

"Who is this?" she asks. I can tell that she knows the answer. She keeps up the façade though by asking the question, thus carrying out a formal introduction.

"I'm Nyx." she says and sticks out her hand. "Nyx Venator. You must be Seth's mother, Sue."

"Yes. I see you are well-informed." Mom says. She glances at me out of the corner of her eye with a slight look of restfulness in her tone. Nyx must believe that it is directed at her because she returns it with the same discreet force.

"I am a very good listener." Her accent starts to seep through. I put my hand on her shoulder and she looks me in the eye. She inconspicuously bats her eyelashes at me for a moment.

"Come on I'll give you the grand tour. " I say and turn her back around to the living room. "This is the family room." She turns back into the kitchen and says "Kitchen."

"Right." I walk her into the small dining room and do the same thing. I point down the small hallway behind the stairs and tell her where the restroom is before guiding her up the stairs. I tell her where rooms are and she pauses in front of my door. She quietly twists the doorknob to the left and pushes the door open. I thank God that I picked up my room yesterday. She is obviously is shocks at its smallness. The full bed takes up most of the room the dresser takes up another proportion. What she says about though takes me by surprise.

"No posters."

"What?" I ask curiously. It was true I had taken down the few band posters I had had up back in ninth grade.

"You don't have any posters. It's like in my room, I doubt for the same reason, but none the less it is like mine," she says.

"Yeah, I took them down a while ago."

"Why?" she asks.

"Well," I start. "I thought it might help me sleep better. I have a problem with that."

"Insomnia?"

"Yeah I took pills but they didn't work to well." I say. It's a half-truth. I had taken pills for it. Billy's pills. And they didn't work werewolf warmth burns them out of my system.

"Me too," she says. Her voice is just above a whisper. I move a step closer to her.

I take my turn asking, "Why?"

She pauses and a painfully melancholy look begins to consume her face. It is a look containing sorrow, grief, and agony.

"Dark things. _Stupid _things" she says more certain of herself regaining control and repressing the emotions that had arisen to her face. "Things I would prefer _not _to speak of." With that, she steps onto my bed and pulls open my blinds. "Come on." She says.

"What are you doing?" I ask inquiring about her actions. She lifts up my screen less window and sticks a leg out on to my roof.

"_I _am doing nothing. _We _however are going to the beach." she says and dashes out of my window.


	11. Chapter 11

12:50 October 4, 2009

I follow her out onto my roof and glance around. I close the window behind me. She walks across the rooftop to the front side of my house. "Where are we going?" I ask before she waves a hand at me forcefully.

"Shush" she says before gesturing for me to follow her. She stops a just at the edge and looks down. She smiles before turning back around to me

"Hope you aren't afraid of heights," she says then jumps with perfect grace over the ledge. I run over to the side and look down. She stands perfectly on the balls of her feet. "Did you think I wouldn't make it?" she asks.

I let out a breath I did not realize I was holding. I laugh and shake my head. I follow her example and know that even if I fumble it will not truly hurt me. I actually land in much the same way. She looks me over. "Not too bad, for a rookie." She walks toward her motorcycle and pulls out an extra helmet from inside the seat.

"Ever driven a motorcycle?" she asks while digging around in her pocket for the keys.

"Only my friends old Harley." I say almost sheepishly.

"Well," she starts. Her vision shifts from the bike to keys and then to me. "I guess there is a first time for everything. Right?"

I catch the keys when she tosses them to me. "Just remember," she continues, "If you break it you buy it." She laughs before putting the helmet on. I hop on the motorcycle and she sits behind me. I take a deep breath and let her scent fill me with pleasure. Dew and Raspberries. I turn the bike on and she places her hands on my side. I drive slowly as I pull out of the driveway and stay at the speed limit until we hit the highway. Then I kick it up to sixty-five and get used to the feel of the bike on the road. Nyx moves closer to me, her arms be almost completely around my waist. I smile_. _I wonder what she would do if I went faster. I kick the speed up to seventy. Nothing. Eighty. Nada. Eighty-five. Absolutely still. I laugh and go back to the speed limit of sixty-five. Of course, Nyx would not be the kind of girl that scares easily.

When I laugh my chest shutters and the movement vibrates through the rest of my body. That is when Nyx decides to move. She relaxes and slides her arms up from my waist to the chest. She leans in and moves her body closer to mine. I smile softly. I love her. Even if I have no justifiable reason to other than imprinting. She does not love me though, at least not yet. I am going to make her fall in love with me. _Before _I tell her the truth. I don't want her to think she has to love me. If I do then the decision would not be hers. I want her to have the option to leave me, free of a guilty conscience. The idea of her rejecting me sends a wrench of pain through my body.

Soon enough though we pull up to the beach and I focus on stopping the bike. Once we are parked Nyx leans back and takes off her helmet. I laugh as she gets off the bike and shakes her hair around like a supermodel. I do the same. She lifts the seat up and puts the helmet back inside. The other one goes on the handlebars. She looks around at the beach, which is completely vacant. She climbs over the small wooden barrier between the beach and the parking lot, which is just a patch of dirt. I follow her. Walking on the beach reminds me of the dream this morning. That is when I realize I brought her to First Beach. _Do not bring the love of your life to the place where you think she might kill you, idiot! _I chide myself_. _The last word sticks into my head asNyx stops just where the dark gray rocks turn into damp grayish beige sand.

"So," she says staring out into the ocean. "This is your beach." I smile at the unimpressed tone in her voice.

"Yep," I reply, "she's a beauty isn't she?'

"_Absolutely,_" she says her voice dripping with sarcasm, "The most beautiful damn beach I have ever been on." Nyx turns to look at me. We both start laughing.

"First Beach," I start, "well she isn't exactly I sight for sore eyes-"

"You could say that again."

"Isn't exactly a sight for sore eyes. Just about every beach further north than California is pretty shameful," I say.

"I know my favorite beach is this one I went to in the south of Spain," Nyx says and sits down on the rocks. I move to join her. "It was . . . perfect. The sand is this shimmering radiant white gold and the water is almost completely transparent until you get to the drop off. It is an amazing shade of teal that glimmers in the sunlight." Her face lights up as she talks.

"You're from Spain?" I ask.

"Oh, no but I used to live there for a short while," she answers.

"You used to live in Spain?" I ask slightly amazed.

"Yeah, we move around a lot. What about you? You said California had nice beaches, I imagine that you've experienced their beauty first hand," she asks discreetly turning the attention away from herself.

I smile and answer her. "I went once. I had won this radio contest for concert tickets. The concert was at the Staples Center but we stopped at a few beaches on the way back. We ended up passing one just before sunset and Leah thought it was so beautiful that she pulled the car over and took at least fifty pictures with her phone. Leah is an artist you see she can make things that are absolutely beautiful. So, when we got home she locked herself in her shop and went to work. Two days later she finally cam out and her eyes were bloodshot, her clothes were stained, I do not think that she had slept once in the past forty-eight hours but none of that mattered. She had created a masterpiece. It was part mosaic part statue part diorama. It was the beach. The whole thing was half a foot thick. It started with the sand, which were all tiny pieces of broken ceramic ashtrays. Then there was the water it started out at the sand then moved upward on to the 'wall' of her creation. The water was made of shards of stained glass that were glued down with a dyed adhesive. And the thing that pulls it all together is the sun. It was every shade of red, scarlet, crimson, orange, yellow, pink, and gold under the rainbow. It faded in and out of the sky. Where it touched the horizon the water was lavender." My hands are constantly moving as I explain this emphasizing the fabrication and handiwork of Leah's work of art. When I am done, Nyx is staring at me. I cannot read her expression. Her eyes give a small insight into her emotions. Curiosity dances with interest inside of her.

"You speak of this magnum opus in past tense. What happened to it?" she asks.

"Oh, Leah donated to the children's hospital in Olympia," I explain.

"Hmm," Nyx says and looks away from me. "What does your mother do?"

"What?" I ask surprised at her question.

"Is Leah's fascination with the arts a hereditary trait or did she come across it on her own?" she asks rephrasing the question.

"Oh," I say understanding her. "Mom isn't an artist. She is a nurse. Our cousin Emily on the other hand is a weaver. She teaches classes at the high school and community collages and at Leah's shop. She was the one that kind of introduced it to Leah. After that Leah turned into quite the visual individual." I mean for the rhyme in the last sentence to be a joke but Nyx does not even smile. Instead, it brings about an awkward pause of silence. During this pause, Nyx's gaze fixates itself on one of the several islands poking up out of the steely harbor. The islands have sheer cliff sides reach uneven summits and crown themselves with isolated, austere, firs.

"What about you?" she asks softly. The question seems to be more directed at her than me. It is as if it slipped out while the wheels in her brain try to figure out the uncomplicated adolescent puzzle that is me. "What is your niche? Surely with a nurse for a mother and an artist for a sister you must have your own eclectic traits," she says. She chooses her words carefully as though she is deliberately trying to sound composed and elegant.

I laugh shakily. "I," I start. "Um, I. It's kind of embarrassing." She looks over at me and raises a flawlessly arched eyebrow. "I like to write," I whisper.

"Come again?" Nyx asks.

"I-I like to write," I say again more audibly. "I write a lot. I enjoy it." Nyx turns her head towards me. Her expression is bemused.

"You're a writer?" she asks slowly. Her tone suggests disbelief. I nod my head up and down at a snail's pace. "What kind of writer? A playwright or a poet?"

"Neither," I say. "It- it is hard to explain. I write what ever I feel like. It helps me. In real life my tongue is as useful to me as a piece of burnt toast but on paper . . . I come out," I try to explain. I feel Nyx's intense gaze on me, which distracts me even more. I close my eyes and lie down on the rocks. I put a hand over my face and start again. "When I write words flow from my pen like water from a stream just after a heavy rain. It depends on how I feel when I write that determines the final product. I have written both poems and a play. The play was just for school but I like to imagine that it was rather brilliant."

"What was it about?' Nyx asks me.

"Nothing important," I admit. "It was just another interposition of that whole 'Guy from the right side of the track with the girl from the wrong side' thing."

"Can I read it?" Nyx asks. I open my eyes and peek at her through my fingers. Her face portrays both interest and inquisitiveness.

"Maybe," I say undecided. She rolls her at me.

"Okay, then," she huffs. I instantly regret not allowing her to read it. "If you are so good with words then tell me something."

"What do you want to know?"

"I don't know; just tell me something mystical and poetic. Rewrite the ending of Legion," she offers. I chuckle before considering it. I move my hand and stare at her. She has turned away from me.

"Nyx," I call. She whips her head back around to look at me.

"What?" she asks. I smirk and prop myself up on my elbows.

"Impatience. It was Impatience that burned inside of her. Anyone could see it flickering in her mismatched eyes," I say. "Like always," I continue with a small laugh, "you could see the picture of emotions painted inside of them. Her green eye was a dark empty field. Its silver mate was a ring of white fire around it. The inferno slowly spread its way across the green until it was consumed entirely with the anger represented by the blaze." I can no longer continue because Nyx is repeatedly slapping my arms and chest with annoyance. I cannot help but laugh at her. Soon she joins me in our cheerful exchange.

It is only stopped when a large gust of wind blows over from the north shifting Nyx's hair. In doing so, the wind reveals a mark on her neck. It is a tattoo. On it are a set of strange words in another language. The letters themselves are even different. They have a Greek feel to them.

"What is that?" I ask her. Her hand flies to her neck and covers up the mark.

"What?" she asks. "My tattoo? It's a tattoo." Her tone is slightly defensive and entirely enigmatic.

I sit back up and move my hand to her neck. She flinches away from my touch and I automatically jerk my hand away from her. Nyx eyes me suspiciously for a moment. I feel my heart sink because I ruined the moment. It is amazing how a single moment can change the previous one so quickly. Nyx looks away and stares back out into the ocean.

"Forget about it," she says. Her European accent is very thick. In any other circumstances, I would have found her strange dialect charming and alluring. Now it is only cold and mysterious. Soon after a three second, pause of silence her expression changes entirely as an idea forms in her mind. "Come on," she says and jumps up. "We're going swimming."

"What?" I half ask half shout at her. "Are you insane? It is fifty degrees outside." Nyx shrugs at my comment.

"So? That's shorts weather," she says with a wave of her hand. After that, she begins to pull her coat off. She looks down at me. I am still sitting down on the rocks. She sighs and shakes her head before throwing her coat at me and kicking her shoes off. With that she starts to pull her pants down revealing a pair of black lacy underwear. I instantly look away to give her some privacy. She laughs. "Calm down, Seth. You act like you've never seen someone in their underwear before."

"I haven't," I admit and continue to stare at the clouds.

"Then you definitely shouldn't be looking at the sky," she says. I hear the smile in her voice. When my eyes remain locked on the blue grey sky dotted with clouds, she sighs and flirtatiously says, "Fine but you're missing out." I hear her walk away before stopping.

"If I were you I would also strip down," Nyx calls over her shoulder, "The wind's natural reaction to wet clothes is to be merciless." I finally look at her. I am relieved to see that Nyx has kept her shirt on. By now, she has stepped into the water. I stand still for a moment hoping that the icy water will drive her away. It does not and she walks out until the water is almost chest deep.

"Nyx!" I shout. I sigh and start to follow her. I take my shoes off along with my shirt. _Keep your pants on_, I think to myself. I keep watching Nyx. She seems content to stay in the water and the look on her face makes me want to leave her. She is calm and still as she grazes her hands lightly across the water. She seems to be pleased and even comfortable out in the cool ocean. I walk out to her and eventually stop about a yard away from her.

"You know," she says, "No thing quite compares to the smell of salt water." Her voice has an almost melancholy tone underneath the sound of reminiscence. I am about to take another step when Nyx dives under the water.

I dive under the grey water and look around. I don't see her. Then something lightly brushes my back. I jerk around and see her looking at me with a smile on her face. Her pupils are dilated trying to take in as much light as possible. She looks white as a sheet in this water. Her hair is blood red and her wet clothes are darker. She swims further out and further down. I follow her quickly. She twists and turns in the water once we are about eight feet under. We must be at least twelve feet under. Eventually, she stops and looks at me under the water. I doubt that she can see me very well. She closes her eyes and I worry that she's passed out from lack of oxygen. Then she moves her legs up and spreads her arms out away from her sides. She slowly begins to rise to the surface.

It takes her at least a minute to get halfway there. I finally swim towards her and throw an arm around her. Her eyes fly open. I pull her close to me and rapidly kick my legs. In just a few seconds, we breach the water and begin to gasp for air.

"Are you okay?" I ask anxiously. Nyx eyes me for a moment before throwing her head back to laugh. "Are you alright?" I demand. I'll never forgive myself if I let her get hurt. Her laughing makes me begin to worry that she is delusional.

"Of course I am! What did you think was wrong with me?" she asks still laughing.

"I thought that you might," I start and can't quite finish. To say the words would bring the heartbreaking idea into my mind. "I thought you might . . . might -"

"Drown?" she asks the laughter mostly gone from her voice. I nod my head. "Seth, I can hold my breath for thirteen minutes. I've trained myself to. We were only under the water for five."

She says all of this in a soothing voice. I realize how close we are. I still have my arm wrapped around her. She has one of her hands on my chest and the other moves to place itself on my cheek. She's trying to calm me down. I smile for her and say "Really?"

She nods her head vigorously. I shake my head. "Yes, I can." she says in defense.

"I know. I don't doubt you but you really shouldn't have told me that," I say and grin mischievously. Before she quite realizes what's happening I turn her around and still holding her by the waste pull her into the water. She tries to squirm away and I tighten my grip on her. Soon she flips around to face me and starts smashing her palms on my chest. I can hardly feel them. She has a wide smile on her face though so I can tell she doesn't mind my game.

A few seconds later, I kick our way back up to the surface. She gasps and truly laughs at me. I loosen my grip on her and she scoots back far enough to where she can quickly slam her palm across the water to splash me. She darts away before I can splash her back. I catch up with her though and we end up in a small water fight. Eventually we wind up back at the waist deep water when I fall under the water. Nyx sits down in the water next to me. I watch her move and float above me. I stay down and stare at her. Her hair floats around her like a scarlet halo. She tilts her head to the left and a smile spreads across her face. The waves move her hair across her face and causes bubbles float across her pearly skin. I want to kiss her. I know I could. All I would have to do is move towards her. We're only a few inches apart. She'd probably kiss back too.

I am still considering it when I listen carefully and hear muffled squawks from birds over head along with a few passing cars and a sharp wind. I keep listening and hear something else. It is far away at first but approaching fast. It starts out as a low rumble before turning into a loud boom. Thunder. Nyx's eyes widen and she grabs my arm to pull me up.

"Come on," she says and drags me toward the shore. We get back and she quickly puts her clothes back on. Another burst of thunder sounds in the clouds. "It snuck up on me," she admits and walks back up the beach towards her bike. With another burst of thunder, lightning strikes a tree on one of the islands. "We should get inside before it starts to rain."

"If you want you come back with me," I offer as we continue up the hill towards the bike. Nyx shakes her head.

"No thank you," she says, "I would hate to intrude. However you are greatly welcome at home if you wish to come."

"Sure!" I say eagerly. Perhaps a bit too eagerly since she gives me a peculiar glance. "I-I mean sure, that's cool." My sad attempt to regain my cool earns me a laugh. I move to get on her motorcycle when she blocks me.

"Uh uh," she says and pushes me back with her hand. "I plan on not drowning today, Seth. I'm driving."


	12. Chapter 12

2:10 October 4, 2009

"_How_ are we not _dead _right now?" I ask loudly as we pull into Nyx's small garage. Whoever said that women couldn't drive was a dumbass. We were on seventy before we hit the highway and reached ninety-five before turning onto her street. The twist and turns on the roads were nothing but a blur. The rain barely had _time_ to hit us. The ride that would normally take twenty minutes was cut in half. She laughs as she puts a plastic covering over her bike.

She is still smiling as we run across the small stone pathway leading from the door of the garage to the front steps. I am taken aback by her spectacular house. Though in a way it does not surprise me. Calvert Road used to be the place to build any high society home until the eighties when Mayor Strider decided to start putting things in the middle of the town in a spot just behind the Town Hall. Now it is mostly an empty road where grass and moss have covered the unfortunate remains of condemned buildings.

Nevertheless, this place is the furthest thing from condemned. It is three stories tall and painted white with deep red shutters. To me the building looks like two rectangles were glued together next to an upside down ice cream cone and a cereal bowl but I suppose that to a trained eye it would be much more graceful. Directly in front of me is the door, which is a few feet above the ground. You walk up three black steps to get there. The steps appear to be made of stone. The first section of the house is shaped like a tower with only one eight-sided window at the top. I assume that it connects to an attic. Guarding the tower on either side are two black shingled roofs that cover the other two parts of the house. Each of them is the same shape and size as one another. They have rows of four windows on each level except the third floor. There it a dome on the backside with a glass ceiling. I can only assume that it is a greenhouse or something of the sort. Together the house gives off an air that makes you believe that it is far more important than it should be, as if it were a fairytale castle. It could be I suppose if ivy were not attempting to cover it. They begin to grow at the road that they use as a driveway and as they mix with moss extend once they reach the sides of the house. Flowers are planted around the base of the household along with several small pine trees. A few birdbaths even sit in the small yard.

Nyx pushes the door open and we step into her home. The room opens up to a hallway with a grand spiraling staircase across from the door. This entryway is completely circular. Next to the door is an old-fashioned five pronged coat rack where I hang my jacket. While Nyx puts the keys up on a hook, I take a few steps forward and look around. The walls are painted a rich cream color, which contrasts with the dark hardwood floors. The walls are completely bare.

The room to my right is a sitting room of some sort. It has a golden couch in it with a matching chair and chase lounger. The couch faces a large fireplace. The furniture sits on a large red and gold rug that has two corresponding ottomans underneath of an angular coffee table that rest in the middle of the ensemble.

To my left is a grand dining room with scarlet colored walls. A table that appears to be made of the same wood as the floors sits in the center with eight similar chairs placed around it. There is a large china set standing in a case on the far wall. Next to, it is a partially closed mahogany door.

Nyx whistles sharply and soon the door pushes open and a large white dog emerges from behind it. It is at least three and a half feet tall from its shoulder the floor. It has large floppy ears and long silky, wavy fur. I notice a large jagged scar going down its back and wince. It does not appear to be hurting him though. His long tail moves rapidly back and forth until it sees me. Then it begins to bark.

"Hush, Buyan!" Nyx shouts at the dog. It automatically stops barking. She pats her lag and he comes to her. She scratches behind his ear and his tails begins to thump the floor. "This," she says looking at me. "Is Buyan." She looks at Buyan and makes a similar introduction. I smile and reach my hand out to pet him. "I wouldn't, Seth. Most Borzois are rather stoic around strangers Buyan on the other hand tends to be a bit more malicious." I take my hand back when he starts to bare his teeth at me. Nyx laughs before standing up. She shrugs off her jacket and hangs it on the coat rack. She stands up and starts to walk through the dining room.

Buyan follows her but I do not. Nyx looks back over her shoulder at me. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I say slightly flabbergasted. "It's just that . . . I've . . . never been in a house this big before." I grin sheepishly. She smiles at me. I barely notice as the dog comes back and moves behind me.

"For what it is worth, I like yours better." she admits.

"Really?" I ask her as I start up towards her once Buyan pushes me forward.

"Really. It is warm and comfortable. The houses we live in are always . . . cold." She says and wraps her arms around herself. I notice goose bumps rising on her arms. Is it cold in here? I do not have a lot of time to think on it because she turns back around and goes through the mahogany door.

I follow her along with Buyan into a large kitchen. The floors match that of the rest of the house. The walls are a darker cream color though. There are hooks on the right wall holding up different pots and pans. A smooth counter runs across the right half of the room along with two rows of cabinets. In the center of the large white room is a small wooden table with a chair at each end.

"Do you want anything to drink?" Nyx asks me as she crosses the room to open a cabinet. She reaches to the top shelf and pulls out a large square package. When she sets it down on the smooth counter to open it, a rich cocoa scent fills the air. She turns around to look at me again. My eyes float away from the tiny box to meet her eyes.

"Hot chocolate," she explains gesturing to the box. "Want some?" I nod my head and she smiles. "Good, now sit." She points at the small wooden table between us.

With that, she starts to quickly move about around the kitchen. She starts by reaching back into the cabinet to pull out two separate bags of sugar; one brown and one white. Along with the sugars she takes out a tiny bag of filled with vanilla beans, an unidentifiable sack that smells like cornstarch, and an extra large Hershey's Chocolate Bar. Then she walks to the refrigerator and comes back out with a small orange, a bottle of milk, a stick of butter, and a glass jar filled with heavy cream. Nyx sets all of this down on the table before returning to the cabinets.

"Do you need any help?" I ask out of courtesy. Nyx shakes her head no. This time she gets out two silver bowls and two large mugs. Then moves to the wall pulling a pot off a hook. She sets the pot down on the stove then sets the bowls down on the counter. Once she retrieves a long metal whisk from a drawer she sets to work. Twenty minutes later we have a two cups filled with an almost pudding like substance with a dollop of something that she called an 'orange crème fraiche' on top. It is the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted and let her know.

"Thank you," she says with a laugh. "I'm sorry it took so long, though. It would have taken less time but I kept putting things away once they were used up. I hate a messy kitchen"

"It's fine," I say and take another sip. "Besides it taste amazing. Where did you learn to make it?"

"Oh," she starts dramatically. "It is an old family recipe handed down generation after generation to and by Venator women. _This _is a sacred drink in my family."

I slowly pull my mouth away as my eyes widen. "Really," I ask timidly.

"No," she says with a laugh, "I read it in a cook book. Honestly, Seth. Do seem unreasonably trustworthy to you or are you just the naïve sort?"

"Both," I say with a smile.

Nyx chuckles and leans back against the counter where she stands. We pause to drink a bit more before she asks me something. "What do you think?"

I knit my eyebrows together in confusion. "What do you think about the house? I told I thought it was nice but cold. How do _you_ feel about it?"

"Well, I've only seen these three rooms. I would not feel right saying the whole thing is nice and have only seen a few pieces of it. For all I know you could have some torturing room in the attic," I say thoughtfully. Nyx nods her head and stands up. She walks over and taps me on the shoulder signaling me to follow her. I stand up and bring my cup with me as she walks to the back of the kitchen and opens a door I did not see before. We walk through the door and it leads us into a long corridor that must run the length of the house. The walls in here are bare and even windowless. The only light comes from three small lamps placed in the hallway, one at each end and one in the middle. To my immediate left is a door with a much smaller entryway behind it.

"This is the back door," Nyx says. "And this is our creepiest hallway." There is a laugh in her voice. I smile and take another sip of hot chocolate. We continue and she points to a thin white door on the left. "Bathroom." Halfway down the hallway we pass a large bookshelf with several large hardcover volumes. Nyx goes past it without a second thought. "The office," Nyx says pointing to the other door at the end of the hall.

"Office?" I ask. "What do you need an office for?"

"Well, it was a part of the house when we bought it," she explains. "It's mostly for Lorcan's use. He plays the stock market you see."

"Oh," I say. Nyx nods her head before turning the corner into 'The Gold Room,' as she calls it. Then she takes my cup and hers back into the kitchen leaving me in the entryway. When she comes back, we make our way up the long staircase. As we rise to the next floor the stairs stop. Wouldn't they keep going into the attic?

This floor is set up in the same way as the first one, except that it has more rooms and doors blocking each one. Nyx starts at the right of the stairs and says that three of these rooms are guest rooms and that the other is the den. On the other side are both of their bedrooms and the library.

"Library?" I ask. Nyx smiles and nods her head. She walks towards the large wooden doors and stands with her hand on the knob.

"If you are really a writer like you said you were," she states, "Then you'll love this."

With that, she pushes the door open in a theatrical manner and backs away leaving me room to enter. I walk inside stop abruptly. Before me is a sanctuary that would put the Forks Public Library, the place where I often spend my free time, to shame. The room itself is partially circular coming together in a glass dome at the roof. There are two levels to it. The first level that I stand on has bookshelves lining the entire wall. In the center of the room is a small table with a few books already spread out on it along with a laptop. Above that, it the second level, which you reach by walking up a set of stairs to my automatic, left. There is a black rail going around the wide walkway. There are less books on this level but instead has windows between the shelves where the glass dome drops down. I finally take another step inside and feel my shoes move against the dark blue carpet. I start making a noise that is half a gasp and half a laugh as I try to form words to properly express my amazement.

"This," I finally manage to sputter out, "is _beautiful_!" Nyx laughs at my excitement. "It's _true_! This . . . H- _how_?" Nyx continues to laugh as she walks over to the table. I follow her and sit down in one of the plush armchairs.

"I do not think I have ever seen someone get that excited about books before," she proclaims. She has a large smile on her face even as she shakes her head.

"This is your library," I say in defense. "Surely you must share my love since these are all yours."

"Well, most of them _are_ move," she admits. "A few of them are Lorcan's though."

"_Still," _I exclaim. "You have to understand, Nyx. Libraries are like my church. They are the place that I go to celebrate everything holy. Even if the world falls to hell, the one thing that I consider holy will always exist and always remain to fight the dark void that is ignorance, which is a force that constantly continues to consume the world. That thing is knowledge and knowledge is found in books. And _here_ I can almost taste the enlightenment flowing from these yellowing pages."

Nyx's smile has gone and she is looking at me in an impressed and slightly pensive way. Slowly she raises her hands and brings them together five times. "Not bad," she says. She gives me a considerate smile. I feel a small blush rise to my face and try to return her smile.

I look at the tiny stack of hardcover books on the table. I pick one up and flip through the pages. "What's this?" I ask.

"_The Fall of the House of Usher,_" she says. "It is an old Poe book. I have a very diverse sense when it comes to books. This particular stack for example contains Poe, Bukowski, and Clare."

"Clare?" I ask. She nods her head.

"Yeah," she says, "Cassandra Clare. She is a YA author. Have you ever heard of _The Mortal Instruments _series?"

"That depends; does Jace _really _need to have four different last names?" I ask with a laugh.

With that, we fall into an easy conversation for another three hours or so. We discuss our favorite books and authors before letting the conversation drift into movie adaptations and our own life. By five thirty, I have been questioning Nyx about her personal life and past for at least ten minutes. She is extremely reluctant to reveal anything. She tries to keep her answers to three or four words. After I ask her, once again about her parents she stands up and walks out of the library. Assuming that I am meant to follow I rise from my chair and go after her. I catch up with her halfway down the stairs. She goes through the Gold Room into Lorcan's office. She tells me to wait outside for a moment before opening the door to let me in. I do not have time to properly observe the dark windowless office because she pushes me over to the fireplace to show me something. I look up at the mantel and see a large painting.

The painting looks like something you would find in the house of a Mafioso. It almost makes me question whether she is part of some international mob. However as I gaze more closely at it I start to notice small things that make me realize it is a family portrait. There are three men in the painting and only two women. The men stand and the women sit. The oldest of the men is salt and pepper haired with small wrinkles forming around his eyes and cheeks. He has a small pointy goatee and a receding hairline. Seeing that he is the only one in the portrait with an open mouth smile he could almost pass for a delighted grandpa. Despite this fact, there is one main feature that makes me want to cringe and could surely send small children running. Across the left side of his head is a set of four long scars distorting his features and pulling the skin on his face back. The long scars start on his cheek and forehead then continue through his short curly hair and cutting his ear in half. Standing next to him is a middle-aged man with straight black hair combed back in a familiar style. He is tall and burly. His stature makes him appear menacing and the fact that he is in an expensive looking suit adds an intimidating quality. His face remains unscarred though. The last man is immediately reconcilable. It is Lorcan. He looks a little younger but not by much. He too is in a suit though it fits his currently angular build. Beneath him on a small red couch are two women. The eldest appears to be the same age as the man and has explosive red curls that fall down her back. She sits up straight and holds her head high. Next to her is a younger Nyx. Her hair is almost the same length as the woman's. What ties them together are their subtle similarities. They are all pale and are all in some way muscular. The men all share the same thin noses along with Nyx and Lorcan shares the woman's vibrant hair.

"This is your family," I say. Nyx nods her head with a solemn look on her face.

"Yes," she says. "That is my grandfather, Isidor. Next to him is Father. Then Lorcan, Mother and I. As she says each of their names, her voice is filled with nostalgia. She takes a deep breath and sighs before regaining her control. She closes her eyes and opens them. She crosses her arms then turns to me.

"That picture was made they day after my thirteenth birthday," she says. Her posture is almost unnaturally straight. "The next month my family fell ill. Lorcan and I were the youngest so we were healthier than the others were. After a few weeks, they were all dead. We buried them in Russia, which was where we were at the time. We traveled around so much because we celebrated life and tried to live it to its fullest. We continued to travel after that for a few years however; I began to fall into a slight state of depression. Every beautiful place we went reminded me of them and made me wish that they were here to see it."

As she says this, I see a few tears start to form in her eyes though she is constantly blinking them back. I reach out to her but she steps away from me and sits down on the rolling chair next to the desk. "That is when Lorcan decided that we needed to settle down. So, we decided on America. It did not have to be America, I can fluently speak almost eight languages, it is just where we happened to choose. That is how we came to be here," she finishes.

Her face is starting to get splotchy from holding back tears. I move to her and kneel at her side. "I- I'm sorry," I say. How stupid can I get? My remorse soon turns to tender sing of both grief pain because of my hurting her.

"Now do you know why I do not care for question?" she asks. Her voice remains steady and almost easy throughout the sentence. Her face is an emotionless mask yet once again it is her eyes that reveal her true self. The green sea is raging as silver storm clouds move in.

"Of course," I say quickly. I take her hands in mine. "I'm so sorry; about what I said, a-about what happened to your family-"

"Don't!" she shouts. She rises from the chair and moves from the chair. She walks over to the door leaving me kneeling on the ground. "I _hate _it when people do that. I do not want your _sympathy. _I want you to understand and I want you to have a little bit of insight into my life. So, _now _you will know to avoid this in future conversations," she says angrily. She runs a hand through her hair and seems to calm down. I stand up as she turns her back to me. She says something that I doubt anyone else would have caught. It is just above a whisper and perhaps barely audible to even herself. "Besides _you _didn't kill them."


	13. Chapter 13

6:25 October 4, 2009

We walk through the Gold Room to the entryway when an alarm on my phone goes off. Text Message. I open it up and see the reminder from Leah.

Remember to be at Charlie's by 7.

-Leah

"Nyx," I say, "I have to go." She stops walking up the stairs and turns to look at me with a single hand on the mahogany handle.

She knits her eyebrows together and asks, "Go where?"

"Charlie's," I answer, "The sheriff. We all got invited to have dinner at his house. If you want you can come," I offer.

Nyx ponders over it warily. Soon, though, her face relaxes and she smiles softly. "I would love to," she says nodding her head. "Just let me change my shirt."

Nyx runs up the stairs and opens a door. I listen to her change. When she returns she has on a close-fitting, long sleeved bottle green blouse and a pair of black strappy sandals. Thrown over her arm is a black coat with light brown fur lining the hood. She has brushed her hair out and it is now more wavy than curly. Her cheeks are not red anymore unlike her lips which have been run over with a thin layer of lip gloss. She looks radiant as always.

She walks through the first floor and turns off all of the lights. "Ready," she announces as she nears me. I open the door for her as we walk out. She thanks me before locking it behind us.

"Motorcycle, then?" I ask. Nyx nods her head and pulls on her jacket. It is longer than I thought stopping mid thigh. When she buttons it up the fur poufs out around her neck and ears. She catches me starring at her and smiles. I feel a small blush rise to my cheeks as she turns around.

We walk to the garage and she starts to get on the bike. "Shouldn't you let me drive?" I say. "You know, since you don't know the way." She stops to consider this for a moment before stepping away and tossing me the helmet.

After she gets on we pull out and head out. I am thankful that it stopped raining. About ten minutes later we are at his house. Leah's car, the Explorer, and Charlie's car are all parked outside. Once we stop Nyx and I get off the bike. She walks up to the front door of his house in much the same way she did mine. She has no fear or hesitation about meeting anyone for the first time. I trail behind her and open the door. As we step into the narrow hallway Charlie comes around the corner to greet us.

"Hey, Seth," he says and shakes my hand. He looks over to Nyx and eyes her cautiously. He sticks his hand out to her and says. "I'm Charlie. You must be a friend of Seth's." Nyx nods her head but doesn't shake his hand. After a small pause of silence he puts his hand down awkwardly. He rubs the back of his neck. Eventually Nyx introduces herself.

"Nyx Venator," she says with an inclination of her head. She moves her arm up to remove the hood from her head. One of Charlie's eyebrows rises when she reveals her face. I look at Nyx wonder whether or not she has something on her face. When I see that she doesn't a thought strikes me. She's beautiful. Of course I thought so but, I only assumed it was a side affect of imprinting. I never considered that others might feel the same way.

These thoughts are interrupted when Leah comes around the corner. She smiles, "_Wow! _You actually made it on time." She looks over at Nyx and continues talking, "Hey Nyx."

"Hello," Nyx says.

"I'm glad you came," Leah says. "Lorcan will be happy to see you."

"He is here?" Nyx asks.

"Yeah. He's in the living room trying to fix Charlie's TV. There was a power outage last week and the sound hasn't been working right ever since."

Nyx nods her head. Charlie takes a step back and we move into the house. Lorcan is crouched over the TV behind the couch. He has a screwdriver behind his ear. Nyx smirks as she walks over to him. She crouches down beside him.

"Really?" she asks sarcastically. "You've been here for, what; five minutes and you're already playing handy man. Brown nose." She says the last part quietly believing that only her can here her. He smiles before looking up at her.

"Yep," he says before running his tongue over his bottom lip. "Still, at least _I _didn't go skinny dipping with my boyfriend today." Nyx punches him in his arm.

"He is not my boyfriend," she argues. To be honest the remark kind of stings. "How did you even know that?"

"You butt-dialed me on accident because forty degrees is_ 'shorts weather,'" _he says mimicking her voice on the last part. Even with her back turned to me I can almost sense Nyx roll her eyes.

Lorcan opens his mouth to say something else when Mom comes out of the kitchen and announces that dinner is ready. I turn around to see the table completely set with mountains of food piled on top of it. It almost looks like something from a Southern Homes magazine. The collective scent of fish, ham, greens, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, biscuits, and fried apples floats across my nose. I feel my mouth start to water.

I look back at Nyx as she stands up along with Lorcan who sets the television back up on the stand. She takes her coat off and gently lays it with Lorcan's on the chair before joining me in the dining room.

"Everything smells great," I tell Charlie.

"You have your mother to thank for that," he says with a grin.

He kisses her on the forehead before sitting down at the head of the table. Mom sits down at his immediate right and Leah sits across from her with Lorcan. Surprisingly Nyx takes the seat directly at the other end of the table so that she faces Charlie. I sit to her immediate right. There is a moment of silence as we all fill our plates with food. Leah and I take the most however Lorcan is not too far behind.

Once our dishes are filled when start to fall into conversation as we eat.

"So," Charlie asks "What did you kids do today?"

Leah is the first to answer. "I went into Port Angelas today to get some new supplies for the shop," she says.

"What about you, _Lorcan_?" Charlie asks stumbling over his name.

"Same, except I had to pick up some new gear," he says. When Charlie knits his eyebrows together Lorcan continues. "I am an archer," he says, "recreationally. I had to go to a sporting good store to buy some new arrowheads."

"What happened to the ones I bought?" Nyx asks.

"They were dull," he replies, "and I lost the whet while we were moving." Nyx nods her head in understanding.

"What about you Seth?" Mom asks me with a raised eyebrow. I can tell that the question is about Nyx. She wants to know whether or not she knows about us.

"Um, nothing much," I say. "I just hung out with Nyx. We went to the beach though."

"The beach?" Charlie asks. "It was only forty degrees out today. It would have been freezing with the wind blowing in off of the water."

"Actually," Nyx says straightening her back, "I thought that it was quite warm. We even went swimming before the storm came in." I see Charlie's eyes widen but he doesn't question it.

There is a pause before he tries to change the subject. "Oh, well, you . . . uh, you should have invited your parents to dinner. I'm sure that they would have appreciated it." He obviously takes a wrong turn.

"Well, I have never known a corpse to eat," Nyx says guardedly.

"Nyx," Lorcan scolds and jerks his head around to face her. The look he gives her is a warning. Nyx lowers her eyes and mutters an apology. Why is she being so cold? I place a hand on hers underneath the table. It is tightly gripped around the seat of her chair. She tenses up at first then relaxes when she realizes that it is mine. She takes her hand into mine. I smile at her and hope for her to return it however it remains an emotionless mask as she stares at her plate.

"Our parents are dead, sir," Lorcan calmly ells Charlie. 

"Oh," Charlie says embarrassed and ashamed. "I-I'm sorry for your loss."

I see Leah place a hand on Lorcan's shoulder and he smiles at her. "Do not feel sorry for us," he says. "It was a few years ago. We are far from being consumed by our grief at this point."

"May I ask how they died," Mom asks. I shoot her a look that is a mix of disbelief and anger. Doesn't she see how hard this is for Nyx to talk about?

"We chose to go to Russia at bad time," he starts. "There was a horrible outbreak. We survived because we were younger. Our immune systems were more equipped to fight it off. They were weaker than us. They all died a tragic and untimely death. Grandfather was first, then Father, and Mother. We were -_are- _devastated. After they were gone we attempted to continue our former life of traveling but never found it quite as satisfying. That is how we decided to come here."

After he finishes there is a long pause. None of us are entirely sure what to say. This leaves us to eat in silence for a while before Lorcan breaks the ice.

"_Well, _that was a dead end conversation on the road to nowhere," he says with a forced laugh. Nyx smiles slightly at this and we somehow manage to fall back into an easy conversation for the rest of the meal.

Throughout this conversation we also figure out a bit more about our mysterious imprints. Lorcan and Nyx had been born overseas (they won't tell us exactly where). Their family consisted of a stern yet, caring grandfather, a good humored and easy going father, and a loving and very lady-like mother. The entire family enjoyed to travel. They had actually lived all over Eurasia and could thus speak several languages. She spoke all of the stranger languages while the ones Lorcan spoke seemed standard. Collectively, though, they could speak English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Greek, Russian, Ancient Greek, Latin, Ancient Egyptian, Hindu, Mandarin, Arabic, Romanian, and even Middle English which, as Nyx explained, is a form of English that was spoken until the 17th Century. Also where Lorcan was an archer Nyx was also quite the fighter however she much preferred butterfly knives or daggers. The reason they gave for knowing these things is that their grandfather had been a bit of Doomsday Prepper and wanted them to all learn how to use a weapon other than a gun, which they both know how to use. Charlie seemed to like Lorcan more after this since they allowed the conversation to move toward different types and of firearms.

Dinner is over soon and after helping mom clean up we prepare to leave. Charlie and Lorcan shake hand before he walks out of the door with Nyx who settles for a subtle goodbye.

"Thank you for having us over," Mom says as we walk outside. Nyx and Lorcan are standing behind the two of us.

"You know you're welcome anytime time, Sue," he says. "You too Leah and Seth."

"Of course," I say as Leah nods her head. He says goodbye.

Once he closes the door Mom starts to walk towards the car when Leah interrupts her. "Lorcan and I were going to go back to my place," she says. "You two can take my car though." Mom nods her head reluctantly before looking at me.

"I think I should make sure Nyx gets back," I say. Mom nods her head again and takes the keys from Leah. Lorcan and Leah take the keys to the bike from Nyx in exchange for those of the Explorer's.

"Are you sure?" Nyx asks me as I open the driver's door to the Explorer. "If you drop me off how will you get home?"

"Don't worry," I tell her with a smile, "I'll hail a cab." Nyx shrugs before hopping in on the passenger's side. I turn the car on and wait for it to warm up while everyone else pulls out. Once we finally get out of the driveway Nyx turns her head to talk to me.

"Thank you," Nyx says. "Thanks for bringing me. I enjoyed myself."

"Really?" I ask.

"Yeah," she says.

"I wasn't sure you would since Charlie asked about-"

"You heard what Lorcan said," she interrupts, "Do not feel sorry for us. I overreacted anyway."

"Still," I say. "I feel bad for what he said. I can see why you acted the way you did towards him."

"What do you mean?" Nyx asks.

"I- I mean," I stutter trying to find my words. "You were . . . cold towards him. You didn't even shake his hand. I wouldn't have noticed so much if you acted that way with everyone but you like _me_ well enough."

Nyx considers this information for a few moments. We are pulling onto her road when she finally responds. "I don't really like other people," she explains. "After Mother and Father died I realized that the more people I open myself up to and the more ties I make I just create more ways to inevitably hurt myself."

"Then why do you get along with me," I ask her quietly. I turn the car off as we park.

She chuckles and runs a hand through her hair. "I have no clue as to why but for some reason I know that I can trust you," Nyx says. Then she looks at me out of the corner of her eye and her face becomes serious. "Do _not _make me regret that decision." With that she takes the keys out of my hand and gets out of the car. I follow her and she locks the doors. I watch her walk up the steps to her house before telling her good night."

"Good night," she shouts back. When she goes inside I walk down the road until I am out of site of her house. Then I move into the bushes and phase before starting my long walk home.


	14. Chapter 14

2:57 October 5, 2009

"Seth. _Seth. Seth Clearwater!_" I hear an angry voice yell at me. I finally look up from my desk and see her standing in front of me. She is practically eyelevel with me even though I am sitting down. Her light grey hair that has taken on a nearly blue color is pulled into a tight bun. Her dark grey dress suit shakes with her body from anger. My Spanish teacher squints at me through her inch thick 1950's glasses. "Have you _even_ been _paying_ _attention_?" She asks me angrily.

"Yes." I lie.

"Then what was the last thing that I said?" she asks with a sneer on her face. I think hard about the question. I _had not_ been paying attention but she doesn't need to know that. I had been remembering the previous day with Nyx when we were at the beach. I look at the board and then back at the blank worksheet sitting in front of me. I read the word on the board along with the word on the top of the paper. _Biblioteca. _

I look back up at her and say "Bathrooms?" A chorus of snickers and chuckles fill the classroom. I got it wrong.

"_Yes, _Seth, because _everyone _gets their books from the _bathroom_."shesays sarcastically. I feel the blood rise up to my cheeks. _Damn it. _The bell rings and everyone gets up to leave. I look up and meet Ms. Lorenzo's eyes. She doesn't have to tell me to stay. I lean back in my chair and place my hands in my lap.

"I told you about this last week, Seth. Either you need to get a tutor or I will have to arrange a conference with your mother. I know that you wouldn't want that," she says with a tired look on her face. I feel sorry for her. Every other class I can understand and relate to the material. I can understand it because I know that I will have to use it at some point in my life. Spanish though . . . I seriously doubt that I'll ever need to go to a foreign country that doesn't speak English. She is right however. This is the first time that I have let my grades drop. I'm not particularly happy with myself but I can live with it. Mom on the other hand might have I slight problem. I watch as Ms. Lorenzo eyes me tentatively. "I will let you in on a secret. I am giving a pop quiz next Friday. If you can make an A on it and at least a B on the test the following Friday, I will not call your mother nor will I ever bring this particular incident up again. In other words, I will let this slide by. Do you think you can do that?"

I nod my head in agreement with her. "Good," she says. "Now go home."

I get up and walk out of the classroom and into the busy hallway. Students line the walls conversing, gossiping. Even though we have a small student populous, we are all still very diverse. The only thing that the various cliques have in common today is their desperate need to escape school. I find my locker and place my books into my dark blue backpack. I throw it over my shoulder and try to creep down the hallway and out of the school without being noticed. Aaron is still pretty pissed at me from the other night. I'll talk to him about it. Later. I look impatiently at the clock, which reads 3:02. Forks High School gets out a half hour later than the Res' school. I will have to wait to see Nyx. _That will give me time to do my homework,_ says a voice in the back of my head. Sadly, it is right.

I opt to go hang at Leah's until it's time. I leave the school and head through town. After about three blocks I come to the local fresh produce store and see pumpkins lined up outside. On a whim, I decide to buy one. I walk up to the elderly woman standing outside and ask "How much for a pumpkin?" She looks up at me and the several beads that are tied into her black-grey hair cling together.

"Free for five dollars." she says in a feeble voice before a sly smile grows on her face. I cannot help but laugh as I reach into my back pocket to retrieve my wallet. She pulls the shawl on her shoulders tighter around her. I hand her the money and she tucks it into her shirt. I walk to the front line of pumpkins and pick out a tall plump one. I look back at the woman who smiles at me. I wave at her before I walk away and continue in the direction of Leah's shop.

When I get to the building, I hear her teaching a class. I listen carefully and hear her instructions coming from the pottery class inside. "Now take your scalpel and hold it against the top to cut off any extra clay."

"Leah?" I ask her knowing that she can hear me from out here.

"What?" she whispers to me.

"I'm going to chill here for a while. Okay?"

"Go ahead." With that, she gives her class of eight another set of directions and I walk inside. I leave the pumpkin sitting next to the door and make my way into the back room, which is currently empty. I take a seat at one of the tables in the back of the room. I take inventory of the multiple objects that spill on to the table as I empty out my book bag. I count nine graphite pencils, one pen, four cap erasers, three notebooks each with different subjects written on them, a math textbook, and one cell phone. I pick up my English folder and sort through it trying to find the worksheet Ms. Mariner had given us. I finish it in fifteen minutes. I look at the digital clock sitting next to the Bolton Board. 3: 22. I put my things away and throw my bag back over my shoulder. I stand and walk out of the room turning off the light as I go. As I am coming out of the building, I bump into someone's shoulder. I look up and see Lorcan.

"Oh, hey." I say surprised.

"Hey, Seth. Is Leah inside?" he asks with enthusiasm.

"Yeah, but she's got a class." I say. I see the light in his eyes die down a little before rekindling itself.

"Well I'll wait." With that, he sits down on the front steps. I start down them again and notice something shining in my peripheral vision.

"You have the bike?" I ask. He nods his head. "Does Nyx have the Explorer then?"

"No, she wanted me to drive her this morning; she didn't want to attract too much attention with the bike. I'll go pick her up when it is time," he says and checks him watch. "I've still got twenty minutes."

"No you don't. It's twenty _after_." I say. I look at his watch, which reads 2:59. "Your watch is slow!"

"What?" he asks anxiously and darts his eyes back and fort between his watch and the sun. "_Yebat_!" He looks over his shoulders at the building and starts to say something when I cut him off.

"Give me the keys," I say and he looks at me like I am crazy. "Just do it. _I'll _get her. You stay with Leah. I was planning to go see her anyway, now I just have a plausible excuse." He hesitantly agrees to it and hands me the keys. I run over to the bike and put my things in the seat compartment before throwing on my helmet. I turn the key in the ignition and before I can completely comprehend what is going on I blaze down the highway towards Forks.

I slow down significantly, as I pull into the minuscule parking lot. I heard the bell ring three miles back just now several teenagers pour out of the halls down the stairs and into the parking lot. I take my helmet off and slide it under my arm as I lean against the bike. I receive several breathtaking stares and strange looks. At first I think that they must _all _be about the bike then I hear girl whisper something to her friend; _'He's _so _hot.' _The girls giggle then the other one says_. 'Why can't guys like him go to school here?' _I feel a smile form on my face at the sudden confidence boost.

I quickly tune their voices out, though. Nyx begins to walk out of the school building and down stairs. She is wearing the green top from yesterday along with her signature thigh high boots and a pair of faded skinny jeans. Her hair is parted on the left side with loose ringlets falling around her face. She must have curled her hair. She stops halfway down the stairs and looks over her shoulder when a voice calls her name. Running behind her is a lanky boy with shaggy black hair waving a red book around in the air. When he catches up to her he stops and smiles. Breathing heavily he holds it out to her and says, "You left it in science." His voice cracks halfway through the sentence. She takes the notebook from him and looks at it for a moment. Eventually she thanks him in a cold voice and turns to continue down the stairs when he grabs her by the shoulder. She automatically recoils from him. I feel my hand clench into a fist. A look of regret forms on his face.

"Sorry. I just wanted to tell you that - that I . . . took the liberty of writing my number down in there. I thought maybe s-since your new I thought you might like me to show you around. Take you out for dinner, maybe," he says bashfully. She looks at him in disbelief before flipping through her book to find his number. She rips it out, crumples the paper into a ball and hands it back to him.

"Thanks but no thanks. I doubt I can get lost in this place. Besides you're not my type."

"What's your type?" he asks her hopefully. What does it take to get this guy to stop?

She shrugs and looks around as if she is trying to find an example. She stops when her eyes land on me. She raises and eyebrow at me. I wave at her. A devious smile forms on her face and she turns back to the boy. "Do you see that guy over there?" she asks and points at me. He turns his head to the side and looks me over. I see jealousy begin to form in his eyes. He turns back to her.

"You mean the tall one with the black motorcycle?"

"Yep." she says and makes a popping noise at the 'p'. "If you must know, he would be my type. Not some gangly Asian kid like you. So, don't get your hopes up." I smile. He stares at her for a moment in pain. He opens his mouth to say something when she interrupts him. "Now, if you don't mind I really need to get going. I would still go if you did mind but I feel that it is more polite to ask," she says bluntly. I chuckle as she starts to walk towards me leaving the poor boy standing alone on the flight of stairs.

When she gets within earshot of me, she begins to speak. "And here comes the big bad wolf." A smirk grows on her face as she says that. I smile too at the irony of her sentence. "What did you do with my brother?"

"He's with Leah." I say. I look over her shoulder at the boy who is still standing on the stairs, staring at Nyx like a lost puppy. I feel a grimace grow on my face when he meets my eye and begins to stare at me with a look of jealousy.

"Are you okay?" she asks. She places a hand on my arm and my eyes snap back to hers.

"Nothing, I just didn't know that you had _two _dogs," I say and discreetly jerk my chin in the boys direction.

"Oh, you mean Jordan Cheney?" she asks. I nod in answer to her. She smiles. "He is _very_ bothersome. He asked me out you know. I turned him down. I almost feel bad for the poor bastard," she says. I can't help but laugh half in humor half in relief. She smiles.

"_Almost?_" I ask. She laughs with me and shakes her head in disgust. "You're quite the heart breaker aren't you?'

She sighs and laughs shakily. "Trust me when I say I'm doing him a favor. Guys like him shouldn't try to date girls like me."

"Girls like you? What kind of girl are you?" I ask hesitantly. She turns to look at Jordan who is now at his car. It looks like the vehicular equivalent to a dying animal that you put down out of sympathy.

"The kind of girl that can break your heart, toss it in a blender, throw it on the ground and walk over it in a pair of high heels," she says definitively. I raise my eyebrows at her in shock. She meets my eyes and smiles. "Not really . . . Well, yes really. I just don't like him. He's whiney and desperate and _many_ other synonyms that tend to get on my nerves. But enough about him. I appreciate you coming to get me. Especially with Lorcan and Leah . . . doing whatever it is love birds do."

"You really don't know?" I ask playfully. "If you want can walk you right back inside and let your Health teacher explain it to you. Or I could try but I doubt that that would work out well." As I finish my sentence, she punches me forcefully in the arm with a laugh.

I hear a small cracking noise as she pulls her hand away. The playfulness that was in the air a moment ago is gone. I hear her suck her breath in sharply as she swears and shakes her hand back and forth. I see the look of pain in her face. I reach down to take her hand in mine and she flinches away.

"I'm so sorry," I say and try to console her. Words of self-hatred fly through my mind knowing that I hurt her. Even if it was unintentional, I feel responsible. She has her hand tightened into a fist. I can see the whites of her knuckles. She tries to flex her hand and winces slightly. I know she isn't okay so I don't bother asking. I put a hand on her shoulder.

"Get on the bike; I'm taking you to the hospital." I tell her. She looks at me as if I'm crazy and shakes my hand off her shoulder.


	15. Chapter 15

3:47 October 5, 2009

Nyx jumps off the bike before I completely stop. The damp grass squeaks beneath her feet as she walks quickly across the parking. I follow her through the doors. She walks up to the front desk. The thin red haired woman at the front desk looks up and says hello.

"How can I help you?" she asks.

"I think I broke my hand," Nyx says. "I was leaving school when I fell down a few stairs."

"Oh, my," the woman exclaims. "Why didn't the school contact us?"

"I did not want to inconvenience them, besides I was leaving anyway," Nyx says.

Her story is fool proof. The nurse believes it wholeheartedly. She hands us a clipboard with a few papers on it to fill out. Nyx and I make our way to one of the plastic chairs in the waiting room. It is completely deserted. I hope that this will mean that she will be seen soon. I keep trying to apologize while Nyx fills the papers out with her good hand. She keeps telling me not to bother and that it is not my fault but I cannot help but feel that it is. If she had punched anyone else, she would not have broken her hand but since she hit me, (the shape shifter) she did.

Before I can wallow in my grief any longer, a nurse calls us from the back door to enter. He leads us into a hospital room and tells us that Dr. Cullen will be with us shortly. First though he tells us that Nyx will remove her shirt so that they can check for any additional injuries since she "fell down a flight of stairs." Nyx puts us a protest at this but eventually agrees. I stand up, pull the curtain around her, and wait for her to call me back in. When I do, she has a hospital gown on.

"Ugh," she says. "I hate hospitals."

"Why?" I ask.

"First of all," she starts, "To come here, means that you or someone you know is hurt and secondly as soon as you walk through the doors they force you into a paper dress. So, in modern terminology; it _sucks_!"

I laugh at her explanation and move to sit down beside her. I lean back onto the bed and stare at the tattoo on her neck. I try to figure out what it means. The writing style is cryptic and foreign. I let my eyes trail from her neck down the rest of her back as we wait in silence. She did a good job of tying it together only her shoulders remained exposed. The skin there was even paler than the rest of her. I swear if it were not for her sweet scent and warm smile, she could pass for a vampire. I stand back up when Carlisle walks into the room with the nurse behind him.

"Hello, Seth," Carlisle says then looks towards Nyx. "You must be Miss Venator." Carlisle says and attempts to shake her hand. She only stares at it for a moment until Carlisle drops it and stops with the formalities. "Now it says here that you fell down the stairs."

"Yes," she confirms. "I was leaving school and slid on a wrapper. I slipped and rolled down the stairs. My hand hit a rock when I stopped at the bottom of the steps."

"Hmm," Carlisle says. He takes a deep breath before asking to see her hand. She holds it out to him and he picks it up. He turns it over to examine it. "George can you please get me a roll of ace bandage?" he asks the nurse. He walks over to the side of the room and looks in the cabinet for some. When he returns Carlisle, looks Nyx in the eye and tells her "This may hurt a little." With that, he takes her hand and pushes something forward and I hear another, louder, crack. Nyx keeps a straight face but I hear a hissing noise come from the back of her throat. "You broke a knuckle but it should be better in a few days. I'm going to wrap it up to try and reduce any swelling," he says as he lets George wrap it together in the ace bandage.

"Now when you fell how did you land?" Carlisle asks.

"On my back," Nyx says.

"Then I will need to check for any other injuries or major bruising," he says.

"I told your nurse before that my back feels fine," Nyx objects.

"I understand your reasoning for objection and I am sure that you wish to maintain your modesty," he says soothingly. "However, you need to at least let me verify that you are all right. I promise I'll be as quick as possible."

Nyx reluctantly nods her head in response. I take a step away from her as she stands up and turns around to face away from Carlisle. I smile at her as she shrugs the back of her paper dress. Carlisle stares at her for a moment before looking up at me.

"Seth," he says. "May I ask you to leave the room for a moment? I wish to have word with Miss Venator." I look at him in confusion before slowly walking out of the room I close the door behind me and listen in.

"Miss Venator," Carlisle says calmly. "You do not have any current bruising or cuts from your fall-"

"Good," she interrupts, "Now I can go."

"However," he starts again. "You see, I am worried. You have several-" 

"Scars," she interrupts again "I know. Scars. Let us just say that I have been through some tough spots, all right? I am fine now. And I would greatly appreciate if you kept this between the two of us." As she finishes her sentence, her voice gets louder and louder thus letting me know that she is coming closer. I move away from the door just as she opens it up. Her face is slightly red from anger.

"Come on, Seth," she says as she grabs my arm. "We're _leaving._"

She starts pulling me down the hallway towards the entrance. I do not ask her about what happened. Carlisle knows that I heard him. What scars? Someone must have hurt her. The thought itself is enough to enrage me. It is enough to make me want to kill whoever hurt her. I cannot stand it. Once we get outside Nyx stops a takes a deep breath. She turns her head up to the sky and closes her eyes. Something inside tells me that what to do next. I wrap my arms around her from behind. She stiffens at my touch before leaning her head into the crook of my neck.

"You okay?" I ask her.

Nyx sighs and I feel her warm breath on my neck. It gives me goose bumps. After a while, she smiles and nods her head. She taps my hand and I move my arms away from her. She runs a hand through her hair before turning back to look at me. She smiles at me and I return the grin to her.

"How does your hand feel?" I ask her again.

"Fine," Nyx says and moves it around. "Although I am sure that it would be a lot better if had told me you were made of stone beforehand."

"That's not stone," I say as we turn to walk in the direction of the car, "That's _pure, one hundred percent _man." She rolls her eyes at me. I laugh at my own joke as we get into the car. Nyx decides to drive this time.

"Where to now?" I ask.

"That depends," she says, "Do you know anywhere good to eat?"

"Yeah," I answer. "There is this place just outside of town that makes the _best _onion rings." Nyx smiles at his and follows my directions to _Sideliners_.

After about twenty minutes, we pull into their parking lot and get out. Nyx brings her bad inside with her. When we enter the door, n elderly black woman comes to greet us and show us to our seats. Once we sit down, she gives us our menus then leaves us for a minute.

"So what are you getting?" I ask.

"Probably a burger and a side of those _spectacular _onion rings," she says mocking me. I laugh.

Her elbow bumps mine as she turns the page in her menu. I take deep breath and smile at her wonderful scent. How odd it is I think to smell like nighttime and berries. Dew and raspberries to be more specific. I love it. And even though I have thought it, said it to myself, and imagined saying it to Nyx I love _her. _I love her smile and her hair that cannot decide when it wants to be curly. I love her soft colored skin and mismatched eyes. As I think that particular part, I look at her out of the corner of my eye. She is sitting on my left with her green eye facing me.

I realize as I stare closely at her how much Lorcan and her _truly _resemble one another. They share the same heart shaped face and icy pallor. They move the same way too. In an agile and dexterous form. It reminds me of a cat. Lorcan is a leopard and Nyx is a mountain lion. Both are marvelous creatures yet something about the two sets off little red flags in the back of your head that tells you that you would be safer observing them behind a thick glass wall.

Nyx finally catches me looking at her and sarcastically asks, "Do you like what you see?" I almost don't answer her until a piece of me that I wasn't sure was there decides to show itself.

I move closer to her so that she is cornered against the wall. Her eyes are still on the menu as I move a hand to push away a piece of hair next to her ear. I notice the odd shape of her ear. A tiny piece of it sticks out from the side. _A Darwin's Tubercle_, I remember from my science class. Either way I press my lips against her ear and she freezes.

"Of course I do," I whisper to her. "I like it now, I liked it yesterday, and I'll like it everyday for as long as know you. Which, by the way, I hope is forever." As I finish my proclamation, Nyx jerks her head away from me and pushes herself up against the wall.

"What exactly are you playing at?" she asks me. I would have felt bad about what I had done if the same mysterious sensation that had caused me to commit my first act was not still overpowering me.

"Your attention," I say with as mush charm as I can muster.

"Got it," she responds. She blinks slowly and her long eyelashes flutter against the skin around her eyes.

"Then your affections," I say and move even closer to her. Our noses are nearly touching from being so close.

"I said that I trust you. If you want to even, get _close _to earning my 'affections' you will have to do a lot better than a few sweet words. Especially considering that I have only known you for two days."

"Then I guess I'll just have to be patient," I finish and lean away from her. After our peculiar conversation the waitress comes back and takes our orders. We sit in silence until the food comes back.

"What are doing after this?" I ask her trying to diffuse the tension.

"I guess I will go home," she replies.

"Got any homework to do?" I ask.

"Nope," she says, "I finished it all in school. Lunch can be very productive when you sit alone. Why? Do you need any help?"

"Only if you can teach me how to remember the difference between the Spanish word for bathroom and library," I say with a small smile. I take a bite of my sandwich and Nyx sips some soda.

"Sure," she says.

"Really?" I ask. I try to remember all of the languages she said that she could speak last night. Was Spanish one of them?

"Yeah," she says nonchalantly. It surprises me at how things have changed so much from the previous few moments. I nod my head and somehow I manage to forget my strange attempt at being a Casanova as we let our conversation float into something more normal.


	16. Chapter 16

**4:02 October 6, 2009**

"_Say 'Hey'! I'll be gone today. But I'll be back all around the way. It seems like everywhere I go the more I see the less know,"_ I sing along to the cheerful melody playing on the radio as I pull into Nyx driveway. When I get in her driveway, I see her walking into the front door. I turn the car off and shout her name. "Nyx!"

She turns around and smiles. She throws something down on the ground then walks over to me. I see Buyan follow her out of the door. I get out of the car and hug her. She laughs and pushes me away. She takes a step back and runs a hand through her hair. "What are doing are you doing here?" she asks me.

"I wanted to see if we could hang out today," I say. She looks at me incredulously. "_Well, _that and I was hoping you could help me with my Spanish homework," I admit sheepishly. Nyx laughs.

"Now that's more like it," she says. Then she gets a small look of guilt on her face. She crosses her arms and shifts her weight to her right foot. "I am sorry, Seth. I can't. Lorcan and I have something to today. It is kind of a _'We Finally Finished Unpacking & Can Actually See Our Bedroom Floors Now,' _party_._ After I finish my homework, we are planning to drive out to Seattle to have dinner. I would invite you but it is more of a family thing."

"No. No, I understand. I guess I'll go then," I try not to sound too sad as I say that. Nyx can see right through me.

"For what it's worth," she says, "if you and I are still on speaking terms by my birthday you are more than welcome to come celebrate."

"Sure," I say. "When's that?" I ask honestly have and forgot whether it was the 26th or 27th.

"This month," she says, "On the 26th."

"Good," I say. "I'll have to remember that." Nyx nods her head and I get back into my car. I turn it back on and much to my regret _She Wolf _starts to play on the radio. Nyx tries to stifle a laugh, as my cheeks turn red. She leans over and rests her elbows on my door. Buyan sits down at her feet and wags his tail.

"_Very _manly," Nyx says mockingly. I look at the radio and smile but she can still see my embarrassment. She leans closer to me and presses her lips to my ear as I did to her.

"Do not worry," she says allowing her accent to show. I notice something strange about the way she says her 'w's. It sounds like a cross between a 'w' and a 'v'. Either way my hands tense up on the wheel at the way her warm breath tickles my ear. I realize how uncomfortable I must have made her feel yesterday. "I promise that I do not think any less of you than I already do."

With that, she quickly stands up and turns around. Buyan is waiting for her at the front door along with Lorcan. "Thanks," I say instinctively. However, I see her smirk as she walk up the stairs. "Wait! What?"

Was that a complement? Damn the man who invented sarcasm. It is bad enough that you can't get a straight answer out of people but now you also have to figure out whether or not they are being sincere before you accidentally make yourself look like a fool. Although in the end, I cannot help but laugh at myself. I still am as I pull out of the driveway. _Where to go now?_ I think to myself. I should probably tell Jacob about their history. As I get to the main road, I turn to go towards the Cullens house. I know that he is there because I drove by Billy's house on my way here.

After about twenty minutes, I am pulling into their long driveway. "Jacob," I say. I listen for his response. I get a snore.

"Don't worry," a soft voice chimes. Renesmee. "I will wake him up."

"Thanks," I say as I get out of my car. I walk into the house and Jasper is there to greet me.

"Hey, Jasper," I say. He inclines his head as a welcome. I notice his eyes are a dark shade of gold. He has not eaten in a while I presume.

I walk up into the living room and see Jacob waking up on the couch. He ruffles Renesmee's hair. She giggles. I walk over and sit down in a chair across from him.

"Seth," he says. "Whatcha know good?" I take a deep breath and relay a shorter tale of events to him about the past two days. I am sure to include the part about them knowing how to use weapons, and the deaths of their parents. He asks about where they are from and I can only say that they traveled a lot. When I get to the part at the hospital Carlisle walks into the room.

"Yes," he says, "There were quite a few mutilations on her upper body."

"What kind of 'mutilations'?" Jacob asks the same time I say, "How many?"

He sits down on the couch next to Jacob and takes a deep breath. Jasper enters the room a moment after. They must sense my concern and more importantly my anger. Jasper calms me down some before Carlisle resumes speaking.

"When I tried to examine her I saw two scars directly on her back," he says. "One of them was a series of four claw marks going vertically on the left side of her spine. The second was a chain of tiny puncture wounds that curved around her side. In other words, it was a bite mark. It was slightly jagged showing that she tried to escape from her assailant. The third was a very faint scar that wrapped around her left arm. All of them were old, long healed wounds. It certainly explains why she was reluctant to show herself." This information would put me on edge if it were not for Jaspers mood monitoring. "The good side is that none of these marks seem to be infected by humans. They all seemed to be animalistic. My theory is that some forest creature attacked her. I have faith in my words however I would feel much more satisfied if I could get a good look at the wounds."

"Me too, Doc," I say. I put my head and my hands and let myself worry about her. Even if it is something that has already happened I want to know, what is was that hurt her. Moreover, I want to know how to prevent it from happening again. I feel Jacob reach out and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Calm down, Seth," he says. "I'm sure everything will sort itself out in the end." Jasper agrees with him.

"Jacob is right," he says. "Don't think on it now. Think about it tomorrow." I nod my head.

"Well, has Alice seen anything new?" I ask.

Jasper is the one to answer. "No. She is still searching. The only vision that has been out of the ordinary was yesterday morning."

He pauses for a moment. "Well?" I ask when he does not finish. "Don't keep us in suspense."

"Alice saw a pair of campers in Canada discovering a dead body today at four o'clock. It will be on the news later today because the person was from here," he explains.

"Who was it?" I ask in shock.

"Martin Waymark," he answers. "He was a dispatcher down at the sheriff's office."

"How did he die?" I ask quietly.

"Animal attack," he says. "Something literally ripped him in two. His face is unrecognizable. The police figure out who it is when they find his wallet."

"Was he close with Alice?" I ask.

"_No,_" Jasper says. "He wasn't close with anybody. After his wife died, he turned into a hermit. That is what is so strange about it. She had no clue who he was. I guess it was just because she saw it come on the news."

"Hmm," I say. I sit for a moment and let it sink in. I agree with Jasper; Alice saw it because it would be on the news. After that, I finally decide to leave.

"Well," I say. "I guess I'll be on my way." I stand up and wave at everyone. Everyone either nods their head or says goodbye. I am almost out of the living room when something stops me.

"If you want you can stay with me for a while," Jacob says. I turn around to look at him. "I mean it," he says and after a moment, a sly grin begins to form on his face. "Besides I've been meaning to have a talk with you."


	17. Chapter 17

[This was a chapter that I decided to put in partially for comedic reasons and partially for my own entertainment. Despite having said that I do like to believe that although it is not necessarily an important chapter, it is a good one.]

4:56 October 6, 2009

I raise my eyebrows at him to question the meaning behind his words. I see Jasper smile at Jacob's mischievous smirk. They both walk toward me and Jacob throws an arm around my shoulder. "What are you doing?" I ask as we walk down the steps and out the front door. Emmett and Edward are making their way up the driveway when Jacob answers.

"Seth," he says, "I know I was mad when I found out you imprinted on one of 'the pair'. But now I realize what an excellent opportunity has presented itself. You see, Seth, I have been waiting a _long_ time to have this talk with you."

"_Well _this sounds interesting," Emmett says with a playful smile as he comes toward us. Edward trails behind him.

"Please tell me that you're not actually considering this Jacob," Edward pleads as he reads Jacob's mind.

"What is doing?" I ask anxiously. No one responds.

"Oh no," Jacob says, "I am _very _serious. And now that I think about it this might even work out better if you three help me."

"Help you do what?" I ask and pull myself out of his grip.

"Don't worry Seth," Edward says.

"Yeah," Emmett adds, "We're doing this for your own good." At this, I swear that I am ready to bolt until Jasper graciously explains.

'This is the only time that all of the girls except Esme and Renesmee will be gone," he explains. "Therefore this is the only time that we will be able to safely advice you in your current and future love life."

"That's right," Emmett says and slaps me on the shoulder. I have to try hard in order not to fall down. "You, my dear friend, get to hear love advice from Cupid himself."

"You're kidding me, right?" I ask jokingly. "You want me to take love advice from you four?" I might as well start reenacting _My Bloody Valentine _in order to win her heart." I cannot help but laugh at them. They let me laugh for a minute before giving me a look that tells me that they are all too seriously.

"Come on, Seth," Edward says, "Let's go for a walk." I start to follow them as they make their way up the trail that lead to the garage but we continue far after that. Once we are about half a mile away from the house we stop. That is when they all turn on me.

Emmet of course, is the first to start. "Seth, Seth, Seth, Seth, Seth," he repeats my name as he circles me like a vulture.

"Hold on," Jacob interrupts before he can continue. "We should do this the right way. We need to give him advice pertaining to his type of woman. Who out of the girls is she most like?"

"Uh," I say. That is one that I have to think about. In my head I slowly compare and contrast the different characteristics of Rosalie, Alice, Bella, and Nyx. I even take height and body shape into account. In the end, I decide to sum it all up by saying, "She is kind of like Rosalie I suppose but, she likes books like Bella. Oh, and she looks like a cross between Rosalie and Victoria. With the red hair and sleek mannerisms you know."

They all nod and consider this information. Emmet is still the one to start. I sit down on a rock and prepare for the worst.

"Hold on," Jasper says just as Emmett opens his mouth to speak. I can tell that this is starting to annoy him. "Seth, remember we have graciously decided to kindly share our wisdom wit you. Generally, when people do this it is wisest to listen to them. And that's _exactly_ what I expect of you."

"Thank you, Oprah," Emmett says angrily. "Now if you would stop interrupting me we could actually get this done. Now-" 

"Wait a second," I say. Then I laugh at my own joke. "I'm sorry I couldn't resist." Emmett looks like he wants to punch me.

"Now, Seth," Emmett finally starts again this time without any interruptions. "When it comes to winning the affections of a woman's heart you must be suave, sophisticated, and charismatic. I know you must be thinking to yourself _'But when does the strong, muscular, burly, and exceedingly handsome-" _Edward and Jacob both have to stifle a laugh _"-Emmett McCarthy Cullen who is already so strikingly captivating ever have to be those things?' _Oh, trust me, young one, I do." As he says this, he walks back and forth in front of me with his hands clasped together. "You see every now and then the occasion will arise when my beautiful Rose would like me to sweep her off her feet even more so than I already do. When such is necessary, I become an entire different man. Now for your sake I will simply give you steps as to how you can become such a fine and charming gentleman.

Step 1 is to be suave. If I were you I would start with buying a pair of full length pants and getting a haircut," he says. Jacob falls out laughing. Besides my hair isn't that long. "Secondly you have to charm her. Compliment her, listen to her problems, do everything in your power to solve said problems- does she have any pets?"

"A dog," I say.

"Then be nice to her dog," he continues. "Try to convince her that you are an all around good person. Thirdly try to sound interesting. You said she likes to read so tell her a story. And I mean a good story, not one of those 'my mom's third cousin's ex-boyfriend's sister in law said so and so saw Bigfoot' stories. Tell her something about you that will sound attractive and fascinating. Make sure that it is also noteworthy. Don't say anything dumb like your blood type, _unless _you need to surgery that is. And make her laugh. Women love jokes. If you can make her laugh then you just gave yourself an extra point in her date book. Finally, there is my personal favorite, number four; make her feel like a woman. Granted you might be seventeen but in this, day and age that is a year from being legal and from what Edward said Leah thought Nyx nearly is too. Therefore, innuendoes are free to fly and for the _love _of _all _that is holy kiss her like you mean it. I swear if Edward ever tells me that you two were trying to-" Emmett never gets to finish his sentence because Edward jumps on him and clamps a hand over his mouth.

"Let's _try _to keep this strictly PG, Emmett," he says. Emmett smirks and throws him off his shoulder.

"Whatever you say little brother," Emmett tells him. He moves away from me and leans against a tree. Jasper takes his place and stands in front of me.

"Surprisingly," Jasper says, "Emmett actually did a pretty good job. I would only add two things. One; emotions. Not only must you pay attention to her emotions and act accordingly you must also be sensitive. Women want a man who is in touch with is most inner emotions. Now I suppose I will also say not to be too in touch with them. You said she's like Rosalie and . . . well you see Emmett."

I turn around and look in his direction. He nods his head at me. "I can be like Emmett," I say. At this Emmett snort and starts to laugh. I narrow my eyes in slight anger. Jasper throws the tiniest wave of peace over the both of us before continuing.

"Two; do _not, _under _any _circumstances, lie. Women can spot a lie from a mile away especially if they're close to you," he says then considers his word. He must be done because Jacob and he trade spots. Jacob comes to stand in front of me while Jasper takes a seat on the forest floor.

"Now," he says, "that you have heard the vampires advice it is time to give you the only advice that matters; that of an imprinter to another imprinter about the imprinted. You have literally met that special woman who will change your entire view on the world. Have you told her yet?" I shake my head no. "Why not?"

"I want to get to know her," I say. "And I want her to get to know me. I want her fall in love because she wants to not because she has to."

"You're a good person, Seth," Jacob says. "If that is the case then be you. You can still listen to Emmett but remember to still be that version of _yourself_. Say who you are and be who say. She should do the same. Then eventually she will come to love _you_ and no one else." I smile and nod my head at his words of wisdom. "Edward got anything you want to add on to that?" Jacob asks him.

He shakes his head no. At the same time, Jasper stands up and Emmett moves away from the tree. I too stand up as we leave our spot. I suppose this means that my lesson is over. The closer we get to the house I hear something. For now all I can hear is Carlisle's voice talking to someone I cannot pick out what they are saying. Then as I listen harder, I figure out who it is. It is Aaron. I see him finally as we turn the corner.

"Well," he says. "Just tell him I was here. I need to talk to him."

"Talk to who?" I ask once he sees me. His eyebrows shoot up. I stop walking as the others walk back into the house. Aaron comes toward me. We have not to each other since I imprinted. He has been sulking about me siding with Leah when they fought and believes that my love for Nyx will jeopardize the tribe's safety.

"Well," he says. "I-I wanted to apologize. I blew the whole thing completely out of proportion. I'm happy for you. I will admit that it I think it's not the most ideal situation but I'm your best friend. And more importantly I want to be there to make jokes at your wedding." He says the last part with a smirk. I smile and nod my head.

"It's good to have you back on my side," I He punches me on the shoulder and that is how I know we are cool. I feel confidant that from here on things will be good. I know the girl that I love and have my best friend at my side. Nothing could go wrong. Right?


End file.
